The first time I experienced depression, it was a good several months before I realized that what I was feeling wasn't just me -- it was a condition.

However, it still took me a good number of years of uncertain feelings before I realized that I was "ill" and much of what I've thought and experienced were not really "me" as I thought they were. I still thought that my loneliness, shyness, anxiety, emptiness, etc. were a result of my personality.

One of the worst things about depression is that you convinced yourself that it's your fault you feel that way, or you're not a happy person, or that you don't deserve to feel better, or any number of those things. It's hard sometimes to realize that the depression isn't really you, and it isn't your personality.