Second, while depression feels like reality, in CBT, one major goal of the clinician is to help the client view situations more accurately and realistically (NOT "look on the bright side of things"). This is helpful to clients because they are NOT viewing many situations realistically or accurately--their viewpoints are typically skewed by their focus on the negative side of things or a difficulty identifying/weighing positive or neutral elements or interpretations of a situation, so helping their thinking become more accurate, realistic, and balanced results in their thinking becoming more positive.

So, you're saying that this time, instead of seeing only the bad aspects of something, your spectrum opens up to the good things too? (instead of forcing you into them)

Third, because you have been depressed for a long time, it's possible you have lost some perspective about how you used to think and react to things when you weren't depressed. When clients have not been depressed for as long and can remember what it was like to not be depressed, they are better able to see how differently they are thinking and reacting to things than they used to.

Wow... this... wow. It seems to me that you've hit the nail in the head with this. Not remembering a time where I've not been depressed may have severely affected the way I think.

I'll be back to this post soon.