I'm going to state this very clearly: Phil does not suffer from depression. At least he's never shared that he's been diagnosed suffering from depression and is on the appropriate medication to help him through such an exhausting mental illness.
There's a huge fucking difference between being depressed and having depression. Everyone gets depressed sometimes, it's human nature. Phil trying to argue he has depression because he sometimes feels sad is somewhat disgusting. I'm sure we all know someone who actually suffers from depression. I'm fortunate to not have it but have family and friends who do. Seeing Phil attempt to guilt some extra money from his viewers by pretending to be suffering a mental illness cements his standing as a complete cunt.
You don't have to be diagnosed to suffer from depression, neither do you have to have ever seen a doctor about it (like people who suffered depression prior to modern medicine). Not many people will even see a doctor because its not always covered under health insurance, and its expensive and takes a lot of time.
There's a lot of debate over the psychology of Phil (
there's even a dedicated thread) but most people seem to agree that he has NPD and a few others believe he has ADD. There's a lot of differing opinions over most of it because the definitions date from many years ago, whereas internet use and social isolation that comes with internet use probably throw most diagnoses out the window.
However, both NPD and ADD often have comorbidity with other disorders, such as depression. Now, is Phil being true & authentic when he says he suffers from depression? Who knows. But if you look at him, the way he "enjoys" nothing at all, has increased drinking and seems to want nothing more than to sit on his sofa for 6 hours watching wrassling you can see someone that probably can't find a way to enjoy anything because they're depressed.
His sofa time (to watch TV) seems to be his only escape from his "job" and the time he must spend behind the scenes having to think about the mountain of debt he has and I'm sure it does cross his mind almost every day knowing that he is financially fucked. That's also possibly why he spends money with no concern, because in his eyes, I'm sure he knows that there is almost nothing he can really do to get rid of his debt.
I think the true clues are in his inability to enjoy almost anything, which isn't just a sign of depression but can also be a trademark of living with instant gratification (ADD). Even with his "muh girl" arriving in a few days, he can't even manage to be noticeably slightly happier.
So the typical person who might have depression probably won't be very relevant when you compare it to someone who has depression because of an underlying issue (i.e. comorbidity). His issue, to be clearer on what I'm implying, probably isn't "my wife left me" or "I'm genetically predisposed to depression" but rather someone who has lived with (insert disorder) for their entire life which in turn has caused depression.
