Remember, when you fight a bad illness, you will be still be tired at the end and it can take many months to get back one's strength used to fight the illness.

One thing I forget often is that getting rid of a problem or illness symptom, something else has to take its place; just feeling better, not so sad, hopeless, anxious or unmotivated does not mean that the life issues that helped keep the feelings in place, got them stuck there, have been resolved; just feeling you "could" do something is not the same as doing it.

If when you became depressed you were looking for but could not find a job, friends, a relationship with a loved one went bad, etc., one is vulnerable to becoming depressed again if one does not do something with the issues that are important to one; I'm not saying if one is looking for a job and cannot find one that one should necessarily bang one's head against that job-hunting-when-there-don't-seem-to-be-jobs wall, but whatever we have invested in getting a job, what the job "means" to us has to be addressed. Maybe volunteering or going to school for more or different education could give us the lifestyle lift to help keep us out of depression or sharing our house could give us more money to make the mortgage payments and make us feel less anxious about that. Happiness, motivation, and self esteem are all individual attributes and skills we must explore for ourselves and see how best to employ for our own health.