I don't know if I'm just stupid or being silly, but my first therapist asked me this question once. The thing is, the question itself really bugged me because when she asked why are you depressed, I immediately thought "oh no, she thinks I'm depressed too, that means she can SEE it, that means OTHERS see it too, hence it must be the TRUTH". A little part of me still didn't want to believe that I was really depressed, and this kind of kills off that little part. I mean I know I said I was depressed in the beginning of the interview, but what I really meant to say was "I think I am depressed, please prove me wrong." A part of me wants the therapist to argue with me, even fight with me, to force facts and truths to the surface. When they ask "Why are you depressed?" that kind of almost renders the therapy useless right from the beginning. Often, the key thing behind not quitting on something is to deny or not believe what is being "shown" to you. If you and others want something to be true, there will always be "evidence". As I said, I may have a stupid opinion here, but to me this question is almost saying "It's OK to quit fighting, you're right, you have THIS problem".

I'm just an idiot, a little man in a big world, and I realize that. But, it is my humble opinion only, that we, as people, scientists, psychologists, doctors, etc. cannot possibly know all the ins and outs of the entity we call "depression". I believe that what many of us have may look like depression, feel like depression, even manifest like depression, and then it still might not even be depression. That is why when we try to treat depression, we get no result, because we don't have it to begin with. There is so much we don't know. That is why, even something as simple as asking "Why are you DEPRESSED?" could be a massive error leading you down a wrong road for so many years, looking for answers in the wrong places. Haha, I'm so confused now, I don't even know if I'm really depressed or not.