Depression is the worst thing that I have ever been through.  It took away all of the good things from my life.  I was unhappy, unfeeling, and miserable.  I hated feeling the way that I did, yet I was powerless from the disease.  Though it was a terribly unpleasant time in my life, I came out of depression a better person - determined not to go back.
            
	When I was first diagnosed as "clinically depressed," I didn't believe it.  I became even more angry and enraged inside from the doctor's diagnosis because I thought that I was just fine.  I didn't like people telling me that something was wrong with me.  Because I didn't feel that I was depressed, I sought no treatment and stayed in my own little world.  The more that I tried to find happiness, the more depressed I would get when I couldn't.  I thought that I would never be happy again and so decided to give up on life, however, giving up only made things worse.
            
	I didn't care about anything anymore.  I pushed everyone away because I didn't want anyone else trying to "help" me.  Eventually I lost all of my friends at no one's fault, but my own and my grades in school dropped drastically.  Realizing that I had absolutely no one or nothing left, I went deeper into depression.  I kept everything inside and kept to myself at all times.  I tried desperately hard to help myself because I knew I had to if I didn't want anyone else to.  So I fought with myself to regain happiness and to overcome the sadness.  .
            
	One day, after two years of feeling depressed and miserable, I finally snapped out of it.  I realized that if I wanted to be happy, all I had to do was choose to be happy.  It was difficult, but I gradually regained a sense of self and learned to love myself.  I began to be sociable again and pick up my grades in school, both of which made me feel even better about myself.  When I came out of my depression, I realized how many things it actually taught me about life.