> You guys can't imagine any way in which depressions might provide benefits? That's how multiple people in this thread have acted. But maybe, just maybe, people that are depressed have a different perspective on life and maybe feel differently.

Yes, my own experiences with depression in those around me (thankfully not in myself) have left me seeing no way in which depression provides benefits. It is a terrible debilitating disease (or symptom, or whatever it is) that literally saps people of their will to do anything regardless of external stimuli. I find it very hard to imagine something so maladaptive being presented as possibly useful.

I would guess that sentiments like this are the main reason behind the powerful response to your thread. It is almost like claiming that "there is a reason for cancer".

Edit: I would also note that it's possible that we're simply talking past each other, as the term "depression" actually covers some quite different disorders; it's possible that what you're thinking of when you use this word is different from what I'm thinking of - to me, it mostly refers to a disorder where people feel either deeply sad or deeply anxious, but either way they are lacking almost entirely in motivation, finding it hard to even get out of bed sometimes; and all this with little relation to external stimuli.