Different Cultures Define Happiness Differently

Your original comment could be the record holder for misunderstandings potential. And mentioning leadership training only made it worse, given the current ballyhoo of positivity and coaching and whatnot. Thank you for this second comment, it was heavily needed.

Please see my other comment. There is absolutely no expectation that it is possible to simply think ones way out of depression. Having already said enough that can be misinterpreted I will say only that clinical depression (and many other diagnoses) fall into a different category. The attempts by various parts of society to pretend that either there is no such thing as "normal" or that everyone is "normal" have done unspeakable harm to individuals where to the best of our scientific and medical knowledge there IS a difference. It is quackery, bordering on murderous intent to think that, much less tell someone with depression that they should just think happy thoughts.

As someone with a family history of depression, one of the things that I've learned, is that chasing happiness is often a mistake. Better to look for contentment.

I know it may not mean much from a random internet stranger, but some of the things we talk about in my family, to avoid some of the potential mental issues, are: never get too tired, too hungry or too lonely. The list should probably include some other things like never get too sedentary, but we've tended to talk about exercise seperately. These I've found are necessary, though maybe not sufficient for good mental health.

Sadly, most of this advice is to avoid the deep spiral which can be incredibly hard to come back from. Mental health is hard, and taking care of yourself can be much harder than people make it to be. Please take care of yourself as best you can.