I have just read the following article that seems okay.

"Our environment can either open up or constrict possibilities for spiritual and intellectual growth."

http://philosophicalsociety.com/Archives/Philosophy%20And%20Depression.htm

I haven't found philosophy helpful for my depression but it can help to analyse issues in general.
Some analysis may offer coping mechanisms but also may cause more anxiety.

It is hard for me to decide what the nature and limitations of reality are and there are competing positions on worldviews or metaphysics.

Absolutely, by studying the arts, (music, art, dancing, singing, mediation, etc.) and observe. Observation and creativity are the heart and soul of philosophy.

No, it cannot. At least in not some kind of self-help way. Consider having a broken leg. In a distant sense, philosophy can help medical practitioners thinking through the problems people have. But if you have a broken leg you don't turn to Plato -- you see a doctor who knows a thing or two about broken legs and how to help them mend.

Not every doctor is a patient's best friend. Just because they know a thing or two that does not then mean they know everything, or know the best course in your specific case. But seeking out knowledge from those who have a better inkling than you do on how to get on the mend is better than picking up a book by a philosopher, whose interests are likely quite divergent from your more immediate need to be helped.

Are there any practical ways by which the study of philosophy can be used to overcome issues with depression, self esteem etc.? — LSDC

IF the study of philosophy leads you to a more realistic view of yourself, the world, and your relationship to the world, it can help. People (whether they are depressed, stark raving mad, or the very models of modern mental health) entertain various erroneous ideas about life, some of which make life more difficult. For instance, many depressed people have perfectionist tendencies--I don't know why, it just seems that way. Of course, they aren't perfect and quite often fall far short of perfection, and this reinforces their negative views of themselves.

Any drunk in a bar can tell you "nobody is perfect" but you might want a little exegesis with your cocktail. Perfection, after all, is the enemy of the merely good, and merely good is decidedly worth achieving. Why should you be perfect? Why do you have this hubristic tendency to excel in all matters? Do you think everyone else is achieving perfection? (Clue: They are not.) Are you comparing yourself with some fictional superman or superwoman?

So you think your drab, wretched life is uniquely miserable? Ralph W. Emerson said that "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." If most people's lives are exercises in futility, why would yours be any different? But hello! I don't think life is futile, but some things definitely are. We just have to know when we are shoveling sand with a pitchfork. Philosophy (the kind you can do yourself) can help you decide what is worth shoveling and what is not.

Existential Psychotherapy is a philosophical based form of therapy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_therapy

Because there is not much concrete knowledge about the nature of mind so there is room for exploration, self exploration, reading from thinkers of all eras on mental states and so on.

Medication has worked for me in the past but isn't working at the moment. I wouldn't replace medicine with philosophy but I think medicine in psychiatry is probably based on a largely physical reduction of mind to brain.

With conditions like schizophrenia,paranoia and psychosis these seem not appropriate for philosophical meditation however psychoanalysts have claimed success using Freudian style analysis for exploring someone one's inner world, at least one analyst I heard claimed he cured a patient.

Can't think of any easy solutions though.

For instance, many depressed people have perfectionist tendencies — Bitter Crank

This is an interesting observation. Do depressed people have a low self esteem due to prior experience?

Is there an internal desire for perfection or is it something assimilated from society with pressures on us to socialise well and achieve things or due to experiences of constant criticism?

It seems easy to create unhealthy trends in society. It seems like societies with an artificial but fairly fixed hierarchy with distinct roles might be healthier than excessive competition and judgement. For instance with a monarchy you know you can't compete with them so you can have them as a kind of constant paternalistic figurehead. I can't comment greatly on tribal societies but they seem to have more natural hierarchies with defined social roles to settle into.

Ralph W. Emerson said that "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." — Bitter Crank

That was Henry David Thoreau apparently. a nice soothing quotation for those feeling alienated I suppose.

That was Henry David Thoreau — Andrew4Handel

Yes, my mistake. I store all the New England Transcendentalists in the same memory cell. I suppose I could afford to give Thoreau and Emerson each their own cell.

Maybe it's soothing; it is at least a relief to know that one's private desperate hell hole isn't all that unique.

This is an interesting observation. Do depressed people have a low self esteem due to prior experience?

Is there an internal desire for perfection or is it something assimilated from society with pressures on us to socialise well and achieve things or due to experiences of constant criticism? — Andrew4Handel

It's surprising that some people have any self-esteem at all.

If you think that depression has purely biological origins (it could), then the feeling of worthlessness is probably owing to a deficiency of certain brain hormones, neurotransmitters. If you think depression is socially engendered, then sure, social experiences and expectations would play a role. Most likely both play a role, in varying amounts in different people.

I don't know where this perfectionism comes from. When I was more severely depressed I was a chronic failed perfectionist. I can imagine completing a complex project perfectly, but in fact I don't have the kind of detail oriented mind to do such a thing. I'm a "big picture" type of thinker; I hate dealing with details.

As I look back over the last 71 years, I think a lot of our psychological problems stem from not really understanding ourselves. There is much about myself that I was very late in coming to understand well. Maybe "perfectionism" is the result of trying to conform to an ideal one thinks one should match. People who don't understand themselves don't understand that they can not be perfect--maybe not even be mediocre--at some tasks.

There are different philosophies of psychology that may or may not work, one would have to do some research on the outcomes of different theories of psychology. Moreover, some theories may have better results with certain illnesses, but not good outcomes with other illnesses. But there is a philosophy behind almost every belief system, which is why is good to have some background in evaluating good arguments.

Google Jules Evans, Philosophy for Life. Specializes in exactly that.

How do you know it is not all shoveling sand with a pitchfork? Does the hope of some achievement, the supposed "insight" from some educational material, the mental absorption of some activity, or the hope of some relationship make the difference? Think of that feeling of a Saturday with nothing to do- you worked all week, you are not with anyone in particular, you join a group but still feel alone, you read a bit, write some ideas down, work out some puzzles, but there is that sense of lack. What are you even working and maintaining for in the first place? Take that feeling and expand it- that is what is really going on. All the work, all that enthalpy, moving around, concern, for nothing in particular. Exist to exist to exist. Work to entertain to work to entertain. Repetition. Instrumentality. No hokey romantic visions of artists and creativity..just pure instrumental nature of a striving that has no goal, a lack of something, just being to be to be. We have to stop speaking as if life is that last five minutes of a news program, the human interest stories that try to portray the uplifting nature of the human experience. Let's talk in frank terms of the instrumentality of being, of what we are doing in the first place. Take off the damn broad-rimmed granny hat, throw down the damn paint brush and knock over the damn easel in the damn French countryside and look at it straight on! :P

One should never underestimate the capacity of the determined to find futility where others find purpose. The radiant beams of a super nova might not penetrate the Stygian shadows wreathed about you in terminal gloom.

Use a shovel, schopenhauer1.

[Delete] @Baden

Think of that feeling of a Saturday with nothing to do- you worked all week, you are not with anyone in particular, you join a group but still feel alone, you read a bit, write some ideas down, work out some puzzles, but there is that sense of lack. What are you even working and maintaining for in the first place? — schopenhauer1

You describe your angst in terms of lonliness, offering the implied solution that meaning is derived through relationships with other people, perhaps even those similarly angst ridden. You just need a hug it seems.

Are there any practical ways by which the study of philosophy can be used to overcome issues with depression, self esteem etc.? — LSDC

It entirely depends on the mind or the individual, but I believe it can although not in the way that it seems. Philosophy enables one to begin thinking objectively, to articulate and explain concepts rationally. Parallel to this is depression and self-esteem that are subjective and often elusive, thus philosophical enquiry can enable one to understand how to think and process information better and by doing so one begins to think and process their own experiences better. They are better equipped to articulate themselves and their experiences objectively and thus begin to see their own experiences more rationally rather than emotionally.

However, philosophy cannot help someone delusional (by delusional I mean someone too egocentric) and while we have ethics and moral philosophy to try and release such people from the grips of their own subjective reality and to begin to form empathy, they instead find the most obscure areas of metaphysics to try and justify their own egocentrism, ignoring what philosophical enquiry is and even so profound in their own delusions that they think they are better at it to form their own philosophy.

I have seen some people who were very positive and respectful preceding their philosophical journey only to eventually decline to a mental state much worse than they originally had because they are too egocentric. Other than that, yes, philosophy can help you better clarify objective reality that you can begin to understand your own mode of existence with more clarity (and courage).

It is also worth mentioning where the word ‘therapy’ comes from:

The term Therapeutae (plural) is Latin, from Philo's Greek plural Therapeutai (Θεραπευταί). The term therapeutes means one who is attendant to the gods[4] although the term, and the related adjective therapeutikos[5] carry in later texts the meaning of attending to heal, or treating in a spiritual or medical sense. The Greek feminine plural Therapeutrides (Θεραπευτρίδες) is sometimes encountered for their female members.[6][7][8] The term therapeutae may occur in relation to followers of Asclepius at Pergamon, and therapeutai may also occur in relation to worshippers of Sarapis in inscriptions, such as on Delos.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therapeutae

Similarly, in Asian cultures, the Buddha is sometimes referred to as a doctor:

Monks, doctors give a purgative for warding off diseases caused by bile, diseases caused by phlegm, diseases caused by the internal wind property. There is a purging there; I don't say that there's not, but it sometimes succeeds and sometimes fails. So I will teach you the noble purgative that always succeeds and never fails, a purgative whereby beings subject to birth are freed from birth; beings subject to aging are freed from aging; beings subject to death are freed from death; beings subject to sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress & despair are freed from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress & despair. Listen & pay close attention. I will speak."

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an10/an10.108.than.html

I haven't read the other answers here, but I can imagine some scenarios in which certain types of philosophy may help ease some types of depression and improve one's self-esteem. Significantly even.

Basically, it can do so by giving us a little critical distance from which to judge the dominant values and ideals underlying our society--which we've unconsciously imbibed throughout our lives--and which some of those with a latent philosophical disposition may not find congenial to their own "true" selves.

You've tried to fit in and fake it, but ultimately the disconnect between who we are and who our society tells us we should be leads to feelings of self-alienation and the resulting isolation, depression, anxiety, etc. which accompanies this.

I imagine the likes of Plato, Augustine, Rousseau, and Nietzsche similarly felt a bit out of touch with their contemporaries, and through their works a space may open up for us in which we feel more at home in the world.

Getting in touch with that core of who we are admittedly sounds corny--a life of "authenticity" and self-realization type stuff--but I think there's something to it. I recall reading Rousseau's Emile about twenty years ago and it having that powerful effect on me; it was like he was the first person who spoke to me on a deep level and distinguished between what truly matters in life with what's typically held in the highest esteem but is of much less importance (money, status, etc.).

I didn't articulate this idea very well but I hope the basic idea comes through in spite of that.

Philosophy as a way of being or "condition of the soul" sort of thing. This may be an antiquated notion today, especially among most academic philosophers (no offense intended), but I do believe it still harbors that genuine possibility for some people.

[Delete] @Baden