answer:There are likely many different answers to this question, but it is likely that most depressed people, like most addicts are functional. That is, they can take care of basic things, but don’t have much room in their life to do anything else but caretake their illness. In my experience, I would take care of some of those things to avoid burdening others or because some kind of societal expectation has greater pull in the moment than being depressed. Often it’s easier to treat external obligations, people and things better than one treats oneself. I’ve also had the slack picked up for me. I’ve lived at home or gotten rent money from my parents or had friends take on more than their share of a thing because it wasn’t getting done otherwise. It works itself out. Depression also comes and goes, so there are times when it’s not as bad and you can do some of the things you’ve put off doing. My cousins grew up with a bipolar mother, and the older one, especially, started taking care of things herself.