Depression is a malady like any other and it should be treated like any other, with a specialist. I'm of the opinion that the VAST majority of people who have depression don't actually have anything wrong with them. They have no friends, no life, don't do anything except sit around and think, never make any efort to socialize, get depressed, and all of a sudden it's a mental disorder. What always interested me about depression is what people think about suicide. Some people seem to think that suicide is a state you reach at a certain level of depression. That at depression level 10 or whatever you will commit suicide. In my opinion though, suicide isn't that cut and dry. You can be suicidal at almost any level really. Also wanted to add that change generally produces anxiety even when that anxiety is not conciously acknowledged. Learning how to deal productively with change might help alleviate some pressure on the system and make you more capable of dealing with the parts of you that feel depressed. Anxiety for a young person is kind of like a cold for an old person. While dealing with the cold properly prevents pneumonia, letting it go unchecked can have other, more serious outcomes. Plus, the quarter life just plain sucks.