Thanks everyone for the kind replies. I am feeling better today. I forgot how much it really helps to talk to people who know what it's like.

Pucky, you're right, I've found that people who have never been through depression themselves just don't understand. They try to be nice and sympathetic, but in the back of their minds they are still thinking, "Why don't you just stop feeling sorry for yourself." Not because they're bad people, but they just don't get it.

Nightbird, I've thought so many times about changing jobs/careers. It's so easy to get complacent, my job actually pays very well for what I do, it's just not satisfying and it's a small, family-owned business, so there's always that drama going on. I always thought the worst situation would be having a low-paying dead-end job. But it's really having a good-paying dead-end job. At least with the former you can quit and know you have nowhere to go but up.

Sky, very good point about setting the limit too close to the bed. It's funny, when I actually have a cold or the flu or something like that, but I'm doing OK with the depression, I can always talk myself into at least getting up and getting to the shower and see how I feel from there. But one those really down days, it's almost like I'm paralyzed in the bed. Even rolling over to pick up the phone and call in is a phenomenal effort.

I'd love to "come out" at work, but as I mentioned before, I work for a very small company (< 10 people), and it is family run, so I don't have much in the way of an HR department to back me up. And the family attitude is, "we pay you well, so suck it up. " It may very well turn out that the best thing for me is to take a lower-paying job at a more supportive company (if there is such a thing) for the sake of my sanity.

Thanks again for all your replies, I look forward to talking to you all some more and maybe helping you out with a reply one day.