I don't think you understand the difference between "being depressed" and the mental illness. It's not something you can just "snap out of" and there is no motivation to email people when you don't know who to email first when you think every single person in the world hates you, and that they'd all be better off if you were dead. When you are this affected by depression you don't feel like you deserve the help to ask for, so you just suffer in silence.
I don't think Nathan has the money. I think he probably spent it on what hardware components he needed to make the boards at the time but much of it has perhaps been buried or put aside in a house that is just making room for another child. Nathan wasn't making any profit on the hardware he sold, he insisted on not ripping people off like many others do in the Amiga community, and so he probably has no savings either.
He may be struggling to hold his own life together, and coming back to face the angry mob of the Amiga scene is probably something he hasn't got the strength to take on, so all he can do for now is avoid the problem.
I hear what you are saying, and I've known and dated someone who is bipolar as well, been through those days where you don't want to get up. My personal experience is this...It's a FIGHT, he has to force himself out of bed and just take a blind swing, even if it is a miss. If you wait to "feel" like getting up, things tend to deteriorate in the meantime, it gets harder to be functional as it gets to be normal to feel overwhelmed.
He needs to get up, fight it, and just get caught up as he can (whatever he can handle w/o too much stress) with existing projects and maybe just do one or two once in awhile. He sounds like he got too popular and I am sure this stuff takes awhile to make.
IMO, the best way to feel better is to get at least somewhat functional. I don't mean this to sound like an a**, personal experience. I've been known to get focused on something for days, then get so burnt out that I'm mental jello, been through depression a few times. Maybe the guy will read this and it'll get him wanting to take a swing at what is bothering him.
Depression needs to be fought, if it takes meds, church, whatever...but people need to poke it in the eye before it gets bad.
This coming from someone who hasn't bathed in 3 days due to learning the history of Commodore and searching the internet for everything Commodore / Amiga related. time to check back in to real life now.