Emotions are intrinsically good and bad

[bennyboy]

TD, are you trying to battle depression with a positive outlook?

Yes.  I am hoping that a positive mindset alone can somehow possess a real positive quality in my life to give my life real good value.  So far, I have witnessed no such thing.  My depression was miserable states due to emotional trauma.  This means my depression wasn't clinical depression (a mood disorder).

Okay, that's good.  I don't agree with your semantics, but if you can adopt a world view that allows you to function and see value in life, then I support that.

I had problems with depression, and I went through a lot of that, too.  In the end, the following helped:
1)  Achieving goals.  This helped me feel better about myself and feel more in control in life.  Depression isn't sadness, it's a feeling of powerlessness.  So I'd start with even just getting out of bed or cleaning my room, writing a song or a poem, or attempting to interact in a pleasant way with other people. Finding someone even worse off than you and trying to help them really works. I'd say your posts here represent a real achievement-- an expression of your feelings and ideas-- so that's a very good thing.
2)  Philosophy.  Thinking about the world a lot helped put it in new perspectives.  Being mentally flexible opened up my world a lot.
3)  Time.  Yep.  Just getting older meant my hormones changed, my experience flattened out that up-and-down manic effect, and I stopped trying to fight with reality.


Your problem right now, if you have one, might be the very last thing.  If your positive outlook isn't based on acceptance but on building up an emotional fantasy, then eventually cognitive dissonance will cause you to break down.

I'm not saying that's you, but be careful about that.

/advice