As I was writing my previous post, something came to me.  There are actually some pretty cool things about being in treatment for depression.  Granted there are parts of depression treatment that suck, hurt, and are just plain yucky, but not all of it is that way.  Here are a few things that come to mind when I think about the cooler side of depression treatment.

1. I really enjoy being more positive. When I first had to start finding a least three positive things about every situation, I really disliked it.  It was difficult and to be quite frank, I thought it was a waste of my time.  I was of the opinion that my life was always going to be difficult, and depressing.  I am so happy I was wrong.
2. I think about other people more than I used to. This may be difficult to explain, but I am going to try.  Before my depression treatment, and even before this last depressive episode, I believe that I spent more time focusing on myself than I did on other people.  The focus I applied to myself was mostly negative.  For example, I would think about my pain and my feelings more than I would think about someone else’s pain and feelings.  Another example would be, I was convinced that most people in my life were thinking not nice things about me.  See, I would turn everything so that in some way, shape, or form until it revolved around me.
3. I am grateful. I really do not think I was grateful for much of anything before I began depression treatment.  I hardly saw anything positive so I really did not see anything to be grateful for.  I find it interesting that making a conscious effort to be more positive led to me being more grateful.  If it were a math problem it would look something that this:   Me + Positive Thinking = Grateful Attitude
4. I love how depression treatment has taught me to view myself differently. I have more self-worth and more self-confidence.  I am proud of my accomplishments.
5. I like how depression treatment has made me willing to continue to work on myself.  Like early this morning when I identified that I chose not to use my tools to turn off my brain when it was time to sleep.  Instead of wallowing in self pity because I have gotten no sleep, or beating myself up because I was not acting very intelligent when I chose not to use those tools, I identified where I messed up and decided to do things differently the next time I ran into that issue.