Also, self-help is no substitute for professional help in this situation. It's a good thing to do, but it's not a replacement or a shortcut. The poster immedia

Also, self-help is no substitute for professional help in this situation. It's a good thing to do, but it's not a replacement or a shortcut. The poster immediately above is being genuinely helpful, but I added some caveats in response to his P.S. below. Depression can be physiological. It can be virtually impossible to change by sheer willpower alone. If you are going to incorporate some exercises or ideas from positive psychology (which again, should be a complement to, not a replacement for, therapy of some form), a good place to start would be the book The How of Happiness, a relatively new book by one of the most respected scientists in the field of positive psych. It contains a popular review of the science of subjective well-being and how that relates to an individual's quest to become happier. There's also a good section about depression include a self-assessment tool that is widely used in diagnosis of depression to help place you on the scale. What she'll say, though, in addition to explaining much about the science and its application, is that this is something you should treat as seriously as any other emerging medical condition. I wish you the best. If you reply to any of my posts, I'll be glad to discuss the issue with you further.