I make too many threads but I promise this one will be brief. Also, apologies for the title, I couldn't think of anything to call this thread.

What do people here think of the notion that "depression is intellectually honest" or that "if you're depressed (at a young age) it means you're paying attention", that people who are depressed "understand the way the world really is"? In short, that depression is the right way to be, a sign you're an intelligent, thinking person.

I personally find it hard to believe. Supposedly high IQ is linked to a greater risk of mood disorders, but I'd say reason is speculative. I'm dead-average intelligence-wise, and I've had depressive symptoms since I was maybe 10. Only in my late teens did my thoughts ever turn existential, and I had to have those thoughts introduced to me by others. My depression (if it even is that) has always been egoistic - even when I did have those existential thoughts keep me up, I'm much, much more concerned with "handling it right" than the concepts themselves. The bad things in life do trouble me, but only briefly, and for some reason the human condition typically hits an emotional wall.

I fail to see how "I'm a useless waste of space, I can't do anything right, I'm broken, unlovable, and can't cope with life like everyone else. I'm bad, wrong, disgusting, a failure, and deserve to die" is a sign of penetrating intellect.