Alright; now I'm ready to really do some commenting on this post. just flew through it before and dropped an upvote. :p
I don't necessarily 100 % agree that when depressed - or in a f*cked up situation - we should force ourselves to feel grateful... It does get stuff going in the right direction, sure, but I think depression goes beyond that. depression takes everything from you.
Your will to get out of bed in the morning.
Your will to brush your teeth.
Your will to go out in the sun.
Your will to live.
It takes everything from you and leaves nothing behind.
It doesn't care if you've got a Ferrari - or several, for that matter. It doesn't care if you have a place to sleep or not. Depression doesn't attack what you physically own. It goes after you personally. And it doesn't make you feel sad... or mad... It makes you not feel at all.
I won the lottery? Meh.
I lost something valuable? Meh.
Depression makes you immune. It makes you immune to feelings. That's why it's so persistent and so hard to tackle.
You welcome it openly at first. Because, well, after you've been stressing over stuff for so long... You find it a welcome change to just.. stop. And not care.
And that's when you're hooked. At first it's awesome. And you don't want to go back to being stressed all the time. But slowly you realise that not only do you not feel stressed anymore... You don't feel anything anymore.
And it's the easiest thing to do. Being stuck inbetween four walls, not actively trying to make a change... super easy. And it's being easy that depression feeds off of. It's the easiest thing to do.
It might sound a bit morbid, but... I believe our brain is hardwired to be depressed. Simply because it wants to always take the easiest route. And you can't blame it for it. It's what you usually do too.
So how do you tackle depression and kick its butt?
I believe there's no one recipe that works for everyone, but I believe you've raised some solid points. Seeing as this reply got real long... I'll stop here :p
Thanks for a good read though! Enjoyed it ^^
And as for my article... Surely won't be posted by tomorrow morning. I'm going to sleep now :p