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It's very important to keep moving past bad events, to keep moving through failures of character while incorporating a change of heart and character into who you are. To stop and dwell on personal failures is self defeating. Learn, change, and grow. At the end of the day, you end up being who you choose to be.

We may not have control over events that come into our lives, we have complete control over how we react to them and how we allow, or do not allow them to effect us.

People in trouble see nothing in front of them but a immovable brick wall, they have lost all hope for change. In helping them one must work hard to dislodge one of those bricks and allow them to see past that wall to a better future.

If that means self examination and change in character they must see that as possible, if that means an event must be endured, they must see that they can endure it. Sometimes self pity makes a person feel that their problem is unique to them and that no one else has ever faced such a problem, when really most problems are common to all men.

I don't like to ask for things for myself, but when I find myself at the end of my endurance and tapped out of the character and strength it takes to endure, I have a long talk with my Father in heaven. The situation may not change but I feel I am changed.

I'm so sad for TrappedInLiberalHell, it's hard to think on the pain he must have felt and how alone he must have felt.
I pray that God grants him the peace and joy that he could not find here.

We may not have control over events that come into our lives, we have complete control over how we react to them and how we allow, or do not allow them to effect us.

MAP, I think we're talking apples and oranges here. What you're describing is situational depression, and everyone goes through it to some extent at one time or another in their lives. Clinical depression is something else entirely. It is a medical condition.
Consider it like diabetes. You find your blood sugars are creeping up, and you decide to change your diet, lose weight, and exercise regularly. Your blood sugars are back to normal. YOU have confronted the problem in your life and taken steps to solve that problem. Some people have a type of diabetes that destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. No amount of diet or exercise will help. They HAVE to take medication. Same thing with clinical depression. It's not the problems in your life that are "getting you down," it's the chemicals in your brain.

When someone is clinically depressed, it doesn't matter if there are problems in your life or if everything's going great. You will still be depressed.

I'm so sad for TrappedInLiberalHell, it's hard to think on the pain he must have felt and how alone he must have felt. I pray that God grants him the peace and joy that he could not find here.

I'm just getting that he committed suicide, by your post. I'm very sorry to hear that. I used to read his posts here on FR. I read many posts about how Ithica was a hotbed of evil Liberals, which is probably true. Nonetheless, his obsession with them was perhaps his downfall.

I've known several close ones to do the same. I must say that the common element I see in all of these tragedies is a streak of stubbornness and inflexibility. Now I feel guilty for not saying anything to him while he was still here. He could have been saved. May the Lord rest and heal his soul.