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Laura - I like your thinking. I read the sadness article yesterday in the Science Times and it really resonated with me. I have worked with a number of clients who had really really good reasons to be depressed: they were dealing with grief (often what we call "complex grief", such as that resulting from a murder or death of an abuser), unemployment, poverty, single parenthood, physical illnesses, stressful living conditions, etc. The first and foremost thing I would tell them is that what they were experiencing was a normal response to their situation. I was amazed by how many of them were relieved and even surprised to hear that! In many cases, it wasn't just the sadness that was the problem, it was the anxiety over whether or not the sadness was "normal."  It seems that individuals often feel that they need to "buck up", and worry that admission of sadness in the face of sad circumstances is abonormal or a sign of weakness. Another reason I am a big fan of group therapy - there's nothing that helps like realizing you're not alone in your experience.