I think we're all looking at the same picture, from different angles. Yes



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." I'm not new to depression either, please don't imply that YOU know more than I do. You don't know me and my experiences.

I didn't say that depression comes on all of a sudden from one particular event. It's often that we get 'reminded' of something that then triggers the depression. Maybe something happened to you when you were six years old that you were unable to deal with at the time. Past traumas can have a massive psychological impact.

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.)
I don't think you can really compare a physical illness with a psychological illness, they are very different things. Of course psychotherapy would do nothing to help with diabetes. But I also didn't say that psychotherapy needs to be used alone, it should be used with medication also.

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. I agree but try not to think in terms of, 'I am depressed, therefore I am.' There is much you can do to help yourself.