Reality is something that is very hard to accept for most people. Therefore, for many people, being overly optimistic is just a form of denial and a defense mechanism. I do often envy individuals who can just shut out how the world really is. However, I really wonder if people who are optimistic have the ability to really empathize as well as those who are pessimistic. If I were to do a study on it, my hypothesis would be no. I've experience being very optimistic and it was harder for me to even understand and empathize with the depressed me. Now when someone is depressed to the point of being suicidal, especially when there isn't any particular apparent external personal cause for depression, I don't believe it is the depression that is the cause of the utter darkness of their world...at least not entirely. It is probably a result of the psychological damage caused by other people want to label or judge them because they don't fit into society's version of "normal". Some people do not want to be around a pessimist because it is really hard to see the world the way it is.

Imagine a world without any depression. People who suffer from reality are often more gifted with the ability to think in a nuanced and deeper way. They typically also are more creative and possess a greater ability to express themselves. I wouldn't want to live in a world in which everybody simply were a bunch of "optimistic ostriches" who simply put their heads in the sand to the suffering and injustices of the world. Would the world have had people who politically take a stand like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, JFK, and Abraham Lincoln? Would we have the fantastic movies, musicians, artists, philosophers, etc etc if people didn't possess the ability to see how things are in a more accurate way?

On a personal level, if one has never experienced deep sadness in their lives, how can they really know what it is like to feel joy? People tend to be fear based creatures. Seeing things more accurately tends to make people more fearful. That is probably why people who are "depressed" also tend to have so-called anxiety disorders. More accurate perceptions often leads to more fear. Therefore those who can't handle reality have the ability to deny reality (optimism) or they even go further and hate those who are different out of fear of them (or scapegoating).

If society was as accepting of the realist/pessimist as the optimist, then people who are depressed wouldn't feel as hopeless and helpless. It's just when one has the ability to be realistic/pessimistic and then people discriminate against you, I believe that is when most people feel helpless and hopeless. Being in a dark place emotionally doesn't mean one is always devoid of hope. It can serve as a motivator to either become more expressive and/or try to change the world as much as they can. It's easier for someone who has the inability to feel pain to accept the status quo. They tend to see things as black and white. People who are depressed are often quite intelligent. Some people just lose all hope whenever the pain becomes so deep from a society that has tunnel vision and are judgmental of those who aren't "normal".

In case you all don't already know by this post, I have a problem being concise. I tend to be very "wordy". I also tend to be rather cerebral. I guess that's just a symptom of my "depression". I'm slow as it is so quoting everybody is challenging and very time consuming for me. My apologies to not quoting many of the well thought out replies to my original post.