Sorry to hear about your surgery.

I'm going to look at the depression success stories too. I'm interested in the therapy component of depression treatment, as most elsewhere on the forum do not mention therapy.

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One thing is clear to me, that i just thought of after reading all the responses. I once had confidence and self-worth, but when i got the depression, my confidence and self-worth somehow declined really badly. I think because the cognitive problems greatly impacted my career and i ended up being in a job for which i was overqualified and my salary was less than it was many years before that point.

I used to always excel at everything academically and at work, but when depression hit, i could not read, focus, or concentrate. I had memory problems, especially short-term and really struggled with work. I brought it up to my doctors, and they kept giving me antidepressants that made things worse. I was also told by doctors that i was getting older. (WTF-i was only in my 30s!) A psychiatrist did give me ADD medications at one point, they helped much more than the antidepressants, but they just fizzled out and stopped working.

So it had a domino effect. I didn't realize how much this impacted me at the time, but it's like years of confidence were zapped by the depression. Oh, and i really value a good internist. Mine left when she went to another practice, and there is no one helping me in that area. Western medicine isn't good for this type of thing, and no longer have anyone helping me in that area.