I've dealt with depression most of my life. We've pegged my earliest depression at about 6 years old; I'm now 52. It has always been very much a constant for me. Therapy has helped me immensely, but it took many years of therapy to really internalize the coping skills I needed to manage the recurrent depressive episodes. I did get there though, and while I'm not depression-free and I doubt I ever will be, I do have better self-care and management skills so that my depressive episodes are not nearly as severe as they once were and they do not last nearly as long. I call that a victory. I've now gone well over a year without a severe depressive episode. The occasional times I have felt the depression coming on, I have been able to use the skills I have learned in therapy to be proactive and get through without the depression really taking hold. I could not have gotten to this place without therapy. It wasn't a quick fix though; it took me many years to get to this place, but it was well worth the work to get here.