I've been pondering about your thread chainsawbutterfly... Vita describes something often similar to my experience --in depressions not usually being emotional. This tendency increased as I got older.

I certainly don't appreciate the small things in either of my true depressive modes. They either seriously pain me when in the emotional mode or I don't feel or even perceive them by the time I get to where I just don't feel anything at all. (This is a hard one to explain, because it's not described well by the word 'numb'. I know this because I've been numb too, and this is not the same. So this is how I try to describe: Imagine looking at a roll of paper towels. Everything is that way to me.)

When I am mildly depressed (and I hesitant to even use the word depressed, as, though this is what far more people --even non BPs--can relate to, it is sooooo the tip of the iceberg that there really should be different words. How to describe? Imagine if pleased and ecstatic were limited to one word to express(!)) I can appreciate small things, but as I can also experience those when neutral or up, "missing them" wouldn't apply.