Another way of looking at depression

[Gemini]

I think I know what you mean, Rob. For me depression was like a disintegration of my humanity. You lose so much of the things that people take for granted--a sense of value in your experiences, a sense of meaning in your efforts. A healthy mental state is so much more fragile than most people realize.

There was a time when I gave up on everything, even worrying about the effects of the people I was going to leave behind. I think your friend's idea is a pretty good way of articulating what brought me out of that. I think depression does mean that on some level you're conflicted. Like Camus wrote in The Myth of Sisyphus. Recognizing the absurdity of life requires that there's some part of your mind that isn't absurd. Some part of you that the depression hasn't taken. If it did, you wouldn't be depressed. Any sense of the absurdity of life would vanish.

At least that's my take on it.