Perhaps, but CBT's goal isn't to STOP the thoughts from occurring, it's just to help the person cope with those thoughts in the first place. 

I'd disagree, at least to an extent.

CBT for smoking cessation, for instance. It's most effective when identifying the daily behaviors and when you smoke. When you leave your house for work in the morning, your brain is kicking off a whole subset of routines and thought processes, from putting on your clothes, to activating the motor skills to operate your car, to the tasks you need to do at work and, of course, priming your nicotine receptors to send out nicotine cravings, even weeks, months or YEARS after the physical addiction is gone. It's when you identify these patterns and consciously work to block that craving and mindset before it starts that one can get ahead of the craving.

It's the same way with depressive attitudes. They are very hard to combat once they present themselves, as it is an uphill battle of both unhappy moods and negative brain chemistry. But if you can spot the times of day, the reactions to events, the triggers of memories or mindsets, you can get in front of the maladjusted mindset before you even feel depressed.

Trying to internalize and cope with why you feel bad is not nearly as effective as preventing yourself from not feeling bad in the first place. The medication is merely a tool to get the patient back to "zero" where they can think clearly enough to notice the changes in behavior and what might be causing them. But if they just put out fires instead of learning to stop them at the source, then of course the chance for remission is high.

My problem with meds like that is that they are killing your kidney and liver. No drug should make you get monthly blood tests just to see it isn't causing too much damage. Drugs should help you and not kill you. It's the reason I see all depression drugs to be utter shit.

The drugs are often the only thing keeping me in a mindset where I can function. Short of winning the lottery and getting everything I want I don't see how you can move off them.

That fuckin bitch.

 Regarding CBT and/or medication: In my experience, people who don't suffer from it themselves have difficulties grasping the dimension of a depression. Sure, CBT can help a lot with developing strategies to deal better with reacurring difficult situations. But I can't drill my brain like a German shepard (thankfully?). "Maladaptive thoughts" in a depression can't be eliminated with psychotherapeutic methods. A depression also doesn't go away through sheer willpower, neither stubbornness, I've tried. For a time perhaps, until it bitch slaps you again. And when it hits you, there's nothing you can do about it. Like others in this thread have said, it feels like being trapped behind a dark curtain, like drowning, like being paralyzed. It's not like having a negative mindset or being in a slightly depressive mood. It's a neurological disorder and needs to be medicated. Ideally in combination with psychotherapy. What kind of therapeutic approach it will be in the end, or if at all, mostly depends if you actually wanna share your misery with the therapist person.

We just gotta keep going, Sully, and not lose our drive, whatever that may be.

Well, I do have it. Heck, earlier today I thought I might have blown a tire and I don't have the funds for a new one, so the first thing that popped in my head was to blow my brains out to avoid the reality. Sheer will power may not last permanently, but it lasts long enough to recover. Also, no, I don't trsut psychiatrists, so I don't plan to see them along with no meds. It's something I can deal with on my own.

that's what it feels like exactly. but telling people that..