Depressed People Are Selfish?

I happened upon an interesting article about depression.  The writer is a little harsh, maybe, but has a right to his point of view.  Here is the article for you to read, and then I will post my response.

http://tomahaiku.com/youre-not-depressed-youre-selfish/

This is my personal belief, and one that my doctor seems to agree with.  

To say that you are depressed is like saying you went to a store and expect me to just know which store and what you bought while there.  There are so many different kinds of depression.  There seems to be different degrees of depression as well.

Depression can be triggered by upsetting life events. Usually, time will resolve it.  Everyone in the world gets sad (which is not depression, in my thinking) and even depressed at times when life is overwhelming. With a little help from a doctor and/or friends, this feeling will leave.

True depression is not logical.  I don't think some of the things the author wrote, such as "I'm fat", "I hate my job", "I don't have friends" and so on. Everyone has these feelings and thoughts at times, and it is normal.  That is not true depression.  When I have my very bad times I have no explanation why I am feeling the way I am.  I can't really think of a good reason to feel the way I do, I just know I am struggling to even get out of bed in the morning.  The lack of feeling, the lack of any drive to do..well..anything is draining. But, the depression isn't caused by any one thing or combination of things that would explain it.

I do very much agree with this author about positive thinking.  I have learned to seek out and focus on the positive in people and in everyday life.  If I am feeling overwhelmed, I try to think of something that is going to happen that day that I can live with, and I hold onto that.  It does help.  It really does help to tell myself that the day is going to be fine.  I will smile and try to make someone else smile, and all will be fine.  You do have to keep positive, even when you don't want to be!

I also agree that if you dwell on it and talk constantly to others about being depressed it will hurt you and not help you.  I can see how it can come off as being selfish.  I am writing a lot about depression here on this blog, but that is why I have the blog.  It is to simply write about it.  I am amazed at how it has helped!  Just to get it out of my head for all to see is like therapy. 

If you read the article, what did you think?