Keedwell cites a study of depression in the Netherlands that found that most people coped better with adversity after experiencing depression.

Living in China has made me appreciate my own country, with its tiny, ethnically diverse population of unassuming donut-eaters.

…depressive realism. Depression is not the near death experience described by so many, [Kayla Dunn] suggests, but a rebirth in which the new psyche has removed self-delusion. Compared with so-called healthy individuals, depressives are more...