"Sometimes depression is a message that is important to receive. The message is to pay attention to something that is not right for you. It may be that you are in a relationship, job, career, organization, church, community, identity, gender, living situation, or anything else that isn’t right for you.

So if you’re depressed and don’t know why, talking about it in therapy could help you understand. But it’s also helpful to be able to listen to depression yourself. It’s like listening to your body tell you you’re hungry, sleepy, thirsty, or sick, and that you need food, sleep, water, rest. If we don’t listen and respond in a nurturing way to these messages, we can feel very uncomfortable and may damage our bodies. Ignoring depression can have serious consequences. If what’s causing it doesn’t change, and we ignore how we feel, it will probably get worse. Like other physical needs, ignored depression can cause misery, poor health, poor self-care, and more."