I have found a lot of relief through literature for my symptoms and have through a long excruciating process have accepted that I tend toward melancholia, and the more I travel and turn inward and ignore the US obsession with "happiness" the less tortured I feel.

Yeah, hear you on obsession with happiness... in the end it leads people to misery when they cannot be happy all the friggin' time... sometimes it is better being okay with not being okay, I believe.

Also, some people are generally more "sad" and pessimist in general... but maybe you can live with that and it is unnatural to force yourself to be something else.

I guess it is more about being comfortable in all states you are. On one hand we hear "you cannot think yourself out of being depressed". On the other we hear how being depressed is not okay... even if we are used to it. (sure there are some health risks, I don't deny it). But what is there to do than? It sounds like a dire prediction.