I found these articles incredibly helpful in learning to help myself. I have no idea if they are factually correct, but the writer's way of reframing depression as a process or system was a great way to get some distance from my personal feelings in the moment, and allowed me to bring to bear familiar mental tools to help get a feel for the complexity.

https://web.archive.org/web/20050527074357/http://www.kuro5h...

https://web.archive.org/web/20050601015240/http://www.kuro5h...

The ASCII graphs on the 'stress system' are fantastic, the rest IDK. Caveat emptor.