He's known to suffer from episodes of severe depression (which is acceptable, I've been there too) but this kind of outlook I think not helpful for his well-being.
I totally agree with this. I have yet to meet anyone who has not felt depressed. However, severe depression is a whole different animal. Having suffered depression myself for most of my life, I have come to understand that, in my case, the way I choose to view myself, the world and my place in it has large effect on how severe my depressive episodes can be. At times I have felt myself on the edge of that abyss, I know to some extent I have a choice. I can give in to dark thoughts or I can muster my strength and pull away. It's not easy and it's not a cure. But depression, I think, has somewhat to do with feeling out of control, and a sense of helplessness. Knowing I can choose to look into the abyss, or turn away helps me. I don't know if it is the same for everyone who suffers from depression. Probably not.
This is also why I choose to look elsewhere for the meaning of my own life, away from materialism. In complete honesty, my materialistic/atheist phase of my life was my darkest. But that is my own experience, and I am in no way claiming that my experience=materialism as a whole.
Many materialist views, for me, served only to deepen a sense of fear, anxiety and sadness that has been part of my makeup for a long time. By opening up my mind to the possibility of there being more than just what we perceive with our five senses, I am in a much better place.
I know a lot of atheists would say I am being cowardly, and clinging to myths so that I can get by. And maybe I am. I have moved from a place where I believed there was no meaning to life, no meaning to suffering, no reason for the universe to even exist. That we die and that's it, lights out forever. To a place where I'm not sure I really believe in much of anything. But the hope is there that there is more. And living in a space where hope is allowed to flourish is a brighter place for me, personally, to inhabit.
We all have reasons for believing what we do. We all have a unique experience, a unique existence. That is one of the beauties of being a conscious human on planet Earth.