Susan, I am glad that you have undoubtedly very positive things in your life, which you find work for you. I too have very positive things in my life, which work for me. There is no need for either of us to try to change the other, as we are both happy with the paths we are on. Acceptance.

Lexy, I read your posts too with great interest, and I truly understand what you expressed, because someone very close to me went through the type of severe depression you described. I spent many many hours with him, on many many days, during most weeks for the best part of a year(in 2002). Somehow he came through it, and when he began to improve, after about 10 months, he improved very rapidly, and he is now in fine form. But at one point that seemed very unlikely. I really do not know how he suddenly began to improve so quickly. He was persuaded to have Cognitive Behaviour counselling, which he reluctantly attended, and seemed determined to prove wouldn't work! But by the end of it, he was more positive. But he didn't put down his improvement to the counselling at the time, though now he says he thinks it helped, but he doesn't really talk about that time now. He's just glad it's in the past.

Another person who is very close to me, emotionally very close to me, has been suffering depression, on and off, since she was a teenager (now in her 30s). And has been suicidal at times. I've become very close to her over the last year, which has been very stressful for me at times, particularly at the times when she has been suicidal, or deeply depressed, or irrationally angry (though the stress for me has been nothing compared to the stress she has been going through). She has been diagnosed by a psychiatrist with a particular psychiatric label, but labels, though useful at times, can be unhelpful too - we assume the labelled person will automatically behave according to the way the label suggests, which may not necessarily be the case - everyone is an individual. It's the individual we have to see - not the label, not the stereotype. So I won't even state what the label is. But the good news is that in the last couple of months she has improved amazingly. Again I am not sure exactly how or why, but again I think that counselling has helped her, and she says it has, but it's only in the last few months she has been attending counselling. Prior to that she felt insulted by the suggestion that she should consider counselling. So even the fact that she is positive about attending counselling now is a big improvement. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her. As well as depression, she has suffered delusions (unlike the first person I described), and she still has some delusions (clearly delusions, though fairly harmless delusions) but she is also now beginning to recognise some of her delusions as being delusions.

I believe many factors may contribute to depression, and the more of these that can be addressed in a positive way, the more likely there will be a good outcome.

Many psychologists say that negative thinking can lead to depression, and I believe that's true, but in severe depression - like Lexy described - the depression causes negative thinking, so it's useless to say "you should try to think positive", you may as well say "you should pull yourself together"! (Good counsellors are trained to help people think positively without saying "you should think positively"!) It's an extremely difficult pit to get out of. But the fact that people do get out of it, proves that it's possible.

Stress is also a big factor that can contribute to depression. Feeling that someone genuinely cares about you is a big help.

As for medication, even the drug companies now say that medication alone is not sufficient to cure depression.

(As I previously mentioned, neither of these two people have Knowledge, and have never been interested in Knowledge - so Knowledge is of no relevance here at all, one way or another. And I am not implying anything by mentioning that. It's just not the issue. But I CAN say that practicing Knowledge helped ME greatly in finding the strength and patience and positivity to deal with these two people, who are both now closer to me than ever before.)