Depression, chickens and eggs

Here is a quote from psychcentral

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Depressive disorders often cause acutely uncomfortable feelings such as overwhelming sadness, hopelessness, numbness, isolation...

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Hang on? Does this say that depression causes sadness, hopelessnes, feeling alone?

Or does extreme sadness, lots of loss, feeling powerless, hopeless and alone cause depression?

In other words, which comes first? The chicken or the egg?

In my experience, and in my observations, the painful feelings I listed above, along with many others, cause depression - not the other way around.

Which you believe will impact what you believe about how to prevent depression, especially teen depression, and how to "cure" it, and what changes you believe are necessary in society.

If you believe "depression" is a cause, of painful feelings, and if you believe that a chemical imbalance or some kind of "mental illness" causes the depression, then there is not a lot of urgency to change very much in society (for example the education  system and the parenting laws).

We just need to keep sending young people to psychiatrists so they can be put on drugs.