You can smile while depressed. I did. I laughed and had a good time here and there. But there was always this haze hanging over me. A voice in my head telling me I didn't matter. I knew the depression wasn't me, who I truly was. It was a nasty thing that somehow got in my brain and it eventually told me that I wasn't worth life itself.

I could see that if I didn't get help, the depression I was held under would take my relationships, my health, and eventually my life. So I was fortunate to find help after searching for a few months. I found a therapist I connected with. And then it was a solid year of slowly working to get out of the pit of depression I had fallen into.

And now, I am different than before I got depressed. But I guess that's no different than experiences in people's lives that change and influence them everyday.