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I agree with Lisa that depression and sadness are two completely different things.  I discussed this with a friend who had suffered from debilitating depression after our class on Monday, and she said that for her depression was more not being able to feel or experience anything--it made her numb.  When she finally went on medication she said that she was happy to finally be able to feel anything--happiness or sadness because it meant she was experiencing life again.

I thought the discussion in class, over how we can learn from these illnesses and the people who experience them can grow was interesting although I don't really know my feelings on this.   I understand the feeling that the "bad" things that happen to us help us grow, but at the same I know that some events in my life that have helped me become a more compassionate person I would still give a lot for them not to have happened.  I think the question is a philosophical one--is the knowledge gained worth the pain of the experience?  I think we can each only answer this for ourselves, or hope that we would have gained this knowledge some other way.