Positive attitude

How can you have a positive attitude while suffering from severe depression?
Well that's a good question...

First of all it's a learning process. It will help you to survive and it will ease your suffering tremendously!
Realizing that even in the worst situation you CAN find something good will make you being able to bear the horror!

Like for example: When you look at a miscarriage there is nothing positive to find at first. But when you really look for it you can come up with a few things. Some are good and some are not exactly what others would call a positive thing.

1. You never know if that poor soul wouldn't have had to suffer from severe disabilities.

2. You do have a little soul watching over you and being there with you, in your own heart and soul.

3. (speaking about normal, loving relationships where the child would have gotten born into)
This child is/used to be a product of your love and it will continue being that even though it's not physically there anymore. It will stay in your memories and your hearts&souls!
4. (personal experience) You weren't ready yet to become a family because of the circumstances you lived in. You wouldn't have been able to provide the child everything it would have needed and everything you would have loved to give to it.
5. Think further and you will find other "positive aspects" about this life having had to end way too soon.

"Everything happens for a reason" is another attitude I developed over the years.
Those two attitudes changed my life for the better, even though it doesn't always work to get me out of one of my severe depression attacks, it still is easing the whole attack!
Here an example (personal experience) for "Everything happens for a reason":
I used to live and work in England. At first I worked as a Nanny and at some point very nasty things happened causing me to have to leave the house and store all my things, move in with friends and losing everything, every security I thought I had, within basically less than 5 days...
I had to make major decisions and that with my fear of doing so. I had to organize everything myself all of a sudden. I had to give my little kitty away and store my life with a friend. I thought it couldn't come worse... I thought I'm at the bottom of my life and I seriously considered suicide...
After four more months I decided to go back to Germany, live with my parents again till I found an apartment for myself. I brought a backpack, a little travel suitcase and a travel bag with me. I sent off three little boxes to my parent's with the most important stuff or let's say the stuff I was able to get to, because it was all in boxes with no inventory list and I looked through everything I could reach, but I wasn't able to find everything I wanted to take with me. That's how I lived for 1 1/2 years, until I was able to get my stuff back.
Without giving any details about the whole situation, but what happened in England caused me having a PTSD. As soon as I came back to Germany and most of the stress and strain on me fell off, because I was in safety I fell into a big hole and became very, very suicidal.
So what was it good for that all this happened?
Why even in the most horrible situation you should try hard to convince yourself that everything happens for a reason?
Well I wrote the story about England for one reason, to explain:
If I wouldn't have had to leave so quickly and had to make serious decisions, I wouldn't have known what I was capable of, that I can manage situations like even if I have to go through a hellish time. Without help and a lot of luck I wouldn't have been able to achieve what I did after I left the house I worked and lived in.
I got another job, was getting more and more independent. Yes, I still WAS depended on my friends giving me shelter and helping me out with food and drinks most of the time. But I was paying my share of rent and I also payed for the food and everything with the rent. So yes, I was both dependent and independent in a different still quite strange country. I had to learn more and more English to be able to communicate and to be able to do my job properly.
When I came back from England to Germany - I made that decision myself even though people advised me not to go back or told me to try longer, because I felt lonely and got more and more depressed and I realized, that I need some kind of family around me. I'm an absolute family person. I need family around me to survive. - I had Chris, the love of my life (Which I of course didn't know back then), I was able to talk to and we would write with each other every single day and he saved my life!
Now we are engaged and are trying to plan our future together.
So without all the things that happened to me in England, Chris and I probably wouldn't have gotten so close. We wouldn't be engaged now. And both of our life's would still be lonely and miserable all the time. I wasn't able to get my stored stuff back for a long time but not too long ago my sister, a friend and I went on a very exciting trip to pick up my belongings... Without the time I had, to gain some kind of confidence, I wouldn't have been able to drive such a big van myself and dealing with all the stress coming with the whole trip. What happened in England caused me to have to trust myself enough to drive such a big van and to make a trip I never thought I was able to do nor brave enough to actually plan.
With that example I just wanted to show, that everything happens for a reason, no matter if we like it or not... In the long run everything, even the worst things will have a meaning! The death of a loved person might for example change your look on life forever... You are suffering because of your loss but your attitude will change, not always for the better, but by that change you will influence others and change their life's so everything will influence at least one person's life whose reaction will influence someone else again and so on. So everything happens for a reason!

Even when you have to suffer form severe depression there are ways to ease it by trying to find positive aspects in life and accept that everything happens for a reason. This attitude won't cure you neither will it heal your soul from the pain but it can/will make it bearable!
As long as there is a little bit of hope in life left, life is worth living! And trying to see the positive in even the worst can/will give you the little bit of hope you need to survive.
There might be even strong people out there who'd be able to cure themselves by having a positive attitude but chemical severe depression or other mental conditions caused by a chemical imbalance won't be cured by just having a positive attitude... Life will just start getting bearable a little more...
We only have this one life so we should try to make the best out of it even if we have to deal with conditions, diseases, illnesses or whatever. We can't always appreciate this life but it's important to always try and to never give up trying!