Comment by cj9

If you think about it, telling someone who's depressed because they are not enjoying life or what it has to offer; "survive and prosper as much as you can in the meantime", simply because their generation will potentially live a lifetime longer than the current life expectancy and things are always changing, is absurd.

"Life is long", "things will get better", "you never know what will happen", "luck works in mysterious ways", and other false platitudes offered to someone deeply suffering, gives the impression that it's out of their control despite still being their responsibility. It could be read as "you have a lot longer to suffer yet and I offer no concrete reason why it shall improve, or reasons to have hope for now or that future, but trust it'll be fine". Often what follows is "if faith doesn't work then that's a sign of the sickness or your unwillingness to get better".

The chance that quick fluff like this will help someone as if they haven't thought or tried basic things like just carrying on (which they are already doing every day anyway), is near zero. Especially on such a forum (problem solvers, thinkers, higher average intelligence). Yet the chance of subtle dismissive nature of people who take time to make a fuss or signal care but not to truly understand, is extremely high. It's frequent and damaging long-term.

My suggestion would be to speak your personal experience if you have it, or spend effort to clarify and empathize how people feel. If not, it's honestly best to not say anything.