Don't Give Up Hope

Greetings! My hope as I start this new (to me) project is to shed more light on the subject of depression and to emphasize that it is something we can and not only can, but must deal with. For those of you, like myself, who suffer with depression, I hope our sharing can encourage one another. To those who do not suffer from it or perhaps have a loved one who does, I hope to bring light to the subject and ideas about how to handle it.
 Let me emphasize, I am in no way an expert or professional; I am simply one person out of thousands who suffer with the debilitating disease we call depression. I welcome thoughts, suggestions, and questions-I simply ask that all be done with grace and compassion.
There is really no good place to start with the subject at hand. Simply put, I am bi-polar (not all who have depression are) and I fight an ongoing battle with the ravages of depression. I have good days and even weeks and I have very bad days and weeks. It varies to different degrees-from simply wishing I could die to feeling so disinterested in everything in life to having no motivation for anything.
Depression sucks the joy and enjoyment out of everything in life. It's not a "blue" day or feeling down because something unfortunate has happened. Rather, everything can seemingly be fine in your life. You can have a great marriage, good job, great kids, be financially secure, etc. yet feel that there is no reason to live.
It's a greatly misunderstood subject. Much advice is given such as: "oh I just get real busy when I feel depressed", or "think positively"; there is a multitude of good intentional advice given but these just prove that they really "don't get it".
Hopefully, together we can discuss, explore, and encourage and enlighten one another.
Thanks for reading my first attempt here. I'm looking forward to many more to come!