I see what you're asking, but I've had real depression.

Now I can cope, more or less, and don't mind living (though I'm not fond of it much). Full-on depression is where death is outright appealing. Full-on depression hurts inside, really hurts. I've described it as soul-cancer. It fucking hurts. It's difficult to explain how much it hurts. It's over now, but if that came back I doubt I'd be alive for more than a few months if that.

That experience, which was a huge chunk of my life, allows me to put this in perspective - things are shite now (in fact they're worse than I've described) but it could be so much worse. I can cope.