I have suffered with depression all my life. Fortunately I have never been self-destructive, but undiagnosed and untreated bi-polar disease (aka manic-depressive) takes a lot of energy to live with. I was properly diagnosed 10 years ago and have been happily taking the right combination of drugs, keeping me "normal" as possible. By the way, when we were younger (30-50) my older sister's answer to my depressive episodes were "get over it. How bad can it be?". She's now 72 and I'm 68. She still thinks you can "out-think" mental illness. No wonder some of us are depressed! HA HA