I guess it depends on what you mean by "complete recovery." I had bouts of depression throughout my childhood, with a major episode in college. I've had years with no significant depression, but then have had a recurrence. I kind of think of it like recurrences of a physical problem like crohn's disease. You can have long periods of perfectly fine functioning, but you are still vulnerable to flare ups. I'm also pretty lucky in that the second antidepressant I tried, seemed to make a big difference. I used it for a year and have only had to go back on it once (about 12 years ago). I've had about 10 years with no significant episode (knock on wood). Of course many years of therapy also helped.

Hang in there, it can get better.