I agree Suga... no amount of logic can pull me out of a depression but to some degree it does help me cope. As real as the feelings of hopelessness and dispair I have to do the work to discredit the voices of depression. Logic tells me to use my coping skills to ease the pain. I try not to have a debate about anything the depression voices are telling me. Logically I know that no amount of debate couldn't win those battles.

I never know how long the depression will last. Could be a day or a month or a year... like this last battle from the pit. Looking back at the depression rather than from within it I really think my better days were those when I practiced the best self care. When I found the will from within the darkness to meet the pain with a counter measure, then the days and nights were easier to live through. When I took the best care of me I could muster, whether that was in terms of what I ate, what I did to reduce the stress, what I did to let go of obsessive worries or negative thoughts, how I coped made a big difference to how I felt. If I believed my feelings I was dombed to suffer more then if I didn't. Discounting the feelings didn't pull me out but I think to some extent the sense of the positive self talk, faith talk, hope talk helped me cope. So much of depression is about coping. Recovery remains a mystery to me. I have no clue what causes the bubble to burst. Coping while trapped in the bubble is the best I can do.

Suicidal thoughts are part and parcel of being depressed for me. No matter how badly I feel logic keeps me safe from acting on those thoughts. I know logically how that act would impact people in my life. I would never hurt people that way. I lived through that kind of loss and I made the promise to myself on behalf of those who love me to never, no matter how badly I might feel and how badly I want free of the crazies I will never to that and leave others with that pain. My faith also tells me that while I may end my physical life my spirit goes on. Life is eternal so the consequences of suicide are not as our physcial mind imagines. There is no real escape, just a change in environment. I know.... a bit bazaar but it works for me. lol.