This is the right advice IMO but beware that finding an informed professional can be surprisingly difficult. It would be in your interest to spend some time re

This is the right advice IMO but beware that finding an informed professional can be surprisingly difficult. It would be in your interest to spend some time researching depression and mood disorders so that you can at least ascertain the professional is working from established scientific background (it feels weird even suggesting this but I've had weird experiences) as there are many schools of thought with regards to dealing with depression but relatively few with any convincing scientific evidence of effectiveness. In my opinion you don't want to end up with somebody who automatically assumes it takes a complete life history and hypnotherapy with childhood regression over 10 years to deal with depression, or who assumes that the first approach should be medication, for instance, when your symptoms don't indicate a need for it. A book like David Burns' "Feeling Good" is enough to give you quick insight (by taking the Burns Depression Checklist and explaining one therapy that has been demonstrated as effective) without turning you into a hypochondriac (the idea isn't to make excuses for not seeing a professional because you're researching, or to make excuses for why you're "incurable").