I think we're all looking at the same picture, from different angles.
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I will say this though, yes depression is an illness and what that means is that you have to work that much harder at it. If you could do nothing about it then psychotherapy would never work would it?... Your list of unenlightened remarks are also good things to think about
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I must disagree with the *implied* (although not stated and probably not intended) notion that a "positive attitude" is all that is needed to treat depression. If a simple change in outlook were all it took, psychotherapy wouldn't be a huge billion-dollar industry and this forum probably wouldn't exist. Yes, I realize that Pegasus did *not* say it was that easy. But, neither did I say that since it is an illness then it follows that we can do "nothing" about it.
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Learning to understand depression is hard and coping with it too is a challenge but it is possible to make changes.
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I must note too that I may be new to this forum, but I'm not in any way new to depression. I've been battling it since I was six years old--almost four decades--and I'm experienced enough to know it doesn't always take an external event to trigger it. I can win the lottery today, and be in a huge depression tomorrow. If my meds are off, all the positive thinking *and* psychotherapy in the world won't help. It takes all elements. Similarly, I can have something terrible happen--a death in the family, for example, and be sad but not "depressed."
Again I use my other illness, diabetes, as a parallel. To keep it under control, I need diet, exercise, and insulin. Any one of those by themselves won't do the whole job, although insulin would probably come the closest. Even if I eat exactly right and exercise like a world-class athlete, but don't take insulin, I'm going to have blood sugar problems, and sometimes my sugar can spike for no reason within my control (a virus, for example.)
So too with depression. I need meds, therapy, and self-monitoring. Yes, that means a positive attitude, but the conflict comes when people think that's *all* you need. The positive self-talk is only one tool in the box, and it takes all of them.