I feel for the guy, but it sounds like he was spending beyond his means from the start, and then quit his job on top of that. According to cnn the average cost of raising a child is 240K, not including college. Multiply that by 8 and spread it over 18 years, and that is 107K per year, for 18 years. And that is just for the kids.
It was a different time and all, but quitting your job completely when you have a large mortgage and 8 kids seems irresponsible. His eventual recovery is inspiring, but what would have happened to those 8 kids if his wife couldn't fall back on the German citizenship and its social safety net? This could have easily ended much worse for them.
Isn't archery kind of a one sided workout for your back? I imagine if you're a right-handed you'd only be effectively working out the right side of your back.
I think it's difficult to simply recommend one type of therapy and expect it fit everybody's needs. Having said that, I would recommend CBT just because as far as I can tell, its effectiveness seems to backed by a lot of science.
I'm kind of in the same boat though. Finding a therapist takes a lot of work, and building up the motivation to do the work is especially difficult when you're depressed. It's a catch 22. When the depression passes, so does the motivation to find treatment.
Maybe if you have somebody close you can confide in, you should ask them to help you find a therapist. If you have any friends who are seeing therapists, their therapists may be able to refer you to others. In the US, many have sliding scales.
This makes me think of Abraham Lincoln, who was known to suffer from deep bouts of depression. What would have happened if somebody told him not to run for president?
I don't think suffering from depression alone is enough to rule anybody out of any particular field. There are ways of managing depression with the right support structures, therapy, medication, etc.
It was a different time and all, but quitting your job completely when you have a large mortgage and 8 kids seems irresponsible. His eventual recovery is inspiring, but what would have happened to those 8 kids if his wife couldn't fall back on the German citizenship and its social safety net? This could have easily ended much worse for them.