Given that every time I've been depressed it has consisted precisely of detaching from the quotidian world somewhat, sitting still a lot, thinking, being aware

Given that every time I've been depressed it has consisted precisely of detaching from the quotidian world somewhat, sitting still a lot, thinking, being aware of thinking, I'm not surprised by this result. It's too much 'yin'. I notice when the diagnosis is depression the first thing doctors reach for, before pills or anything else, is exercise, movement of any kind, which not coincidentally is a 'yang' thing. (Doesn't always work on its own since the patient has to have enough motivation to go do it.) When your world is all crazy and on fire with hectic activity, that's when it's the most beneficial to stop and meditate. I think some of the meditation stuff as it's marketed in the West, is first of all done without much regard to the needs of (or actual effect on) those who buy the book/class/etc., and is secondly based on the implicit assumption that "our modern lives" are filled with too much activity - errands and dropping-off-the-kids and whatnot. But if you're depressed the opposite is usually the case.