Seriously though it irritates me how people have been brainwashed to think depression is somehow abnormal.
Here's something I've learned in life: Depression exists for a reason.
There have been times in my life that I've been very depressed. Sometimes it was due to some event that happened but more often it was pretty random.
During these periods, I've often been very creative or it has done something else that I didn't immediately recognize as a benefit at the time. Yes, it was painful. But life isn't supposed to be all roses.
What I do think is wrong is taking (and getting hooked on) anti-depressants. A lot of my friends take them -- usually in response to a depression and now they've been taking them ever since. Unless you suffer from a very severe form of depression, I think anti-depressants do more harm over the long term than good, and many doctors of course want to keep their patients on them so it gives them an excuse to have an office visit. There's a lot of abuse, because there's a lot of money to be made trying to make people happy.
In my experience, anti-depressants do not make you happy. They make you numb, and (at least for me) they destroy your sex life. What kind of life is that?
I've come to the realization of acceptance. There's only so much I can control in my life, and that includes all the complicated chemicals swirling around in my head that are controlling my emotions. You start to realize that control and free-will is mostly illusionary, how you feel and what that does to you is more like a partnership with you and your body. There are of course things you can do but if your brain wants to make you depressed, you're going to be depressed and go through that experience. I don't think it wouldn't be as prevelant if it didn't serve some higher purpose, and I try to keep that in mind whenever I find myself depressed.