I think suffering can help build character and values, if you let it, but not in and of itself. We have to have problems or we cannot learn? As my favorite Arab proverb puts it, "All sun makes a desert." We have to make mistakes to see what we need to practice, where the flaws are, what we don't yet understand, etc. Ignorant people who make ignorant comments are rarely those who have had depression, or another difficulty we may be struggling with? But they are also those who have not had an interest in studying depression and learning about it. It is not necessary to be depressed to learn about depression or our OB/GYNs would not be so predominantly male?

It may be necessary to impart emotional "truth" to have had a particular problem though. I doubt I want to read many love stories written by people who have not been in love, or read about sad breakups by someone who has only watched other people go through breakups and knows the people were "sad". I'm not just going to talk to my male OB/GYN while pregnant, or young/unmarried/single child psychologists when I become a parent. But I am also not going to ignore either the "expert" on depression or rely 100% on my friend who is depressed when/if depression comes my way.

I think creativity is like any other trait; we all have it to some degree and a lot of how strong it is depends on how much we practice/use it. To become good at sports one has to put in 10+ years very hard work, to become an established writer, the period is similar. People do not wish their way to success, no matter how it looks to the outside. Kay Redfield Jamison is 67! She has both suffered from and studied bipolar disorder since she was a young adult. She probably would not have had an interest if she did not have the disorder but she would not be "famous" if she had not done the hard work. Just being bipolar did not make her creative/famous/an expert on bipolar, her hard work did. One cannot become a better poet simply by suffering depression.