There are huge degrees of depression though. When I spent two months in the hospital because of depression, there was a lady who was so depressed, she almost couldn’t walk. They had to bring her in on a stretcher. She and I shared a room and for the first couple of weeks, she didn’t even get out of bed. I assume she went to the bathroom but I never saw her get up. When she eventually started sort of walking around, she held on to the walls and didn’t open her eyes. After about a month she started talking a bit.
I find that a lot of people say “oh I’ve been depressed, you just have to pull yourself out of it!” and that’s enough for them. But there’s no way someone like that lady could ever just get herself out of it.
While that’s quite possibly the worst case of depression I’ve ever heard described, if she did recover, then she did get herself out of it. It sounds like while in the hospital she made progress by choosing to eventually get out of bed and start talking. I’m guessing your comment was more referring to people who think that because they pulled themselves out of mild or moderate depression without intervention that anyone can do it. I agree with you that those people often underestimate how severe depression can be and how necessary intervention is at times. And there are people who assume that because their depression responded well to medication/therapy that anyone else’s should. I agree those people are wrong.
But I would still want to give credit to that lady for making choices to pull herself out of depression.