Confidence, Positivity and Depression

When I speak on self-confidence I do so from the perspective of someone who has worked on her own levels of confidence over the years (I was very shy at school). Likewise regarding positivity... having made a conscious decision to see the best in things and look for the silver lining, however hard that might be (this habit kicked in when my older sister died from leukaemia aged 24 and I was 23).

However, I don't have any first-hand experience of depression, yet I'm sometimes asked about its relationship to feeling confident and positive.

I don't see them as linked, or even part of a sliding scale. To me they are completely different. Confidence and positivity are aspects of our thinking, and can be changed by changing our thinking (at least that's my experience).

From what I know about depression it's not the opposite of feeling positive; it is an illness that descends without the sufferer being complicit or willing. Reading the articles in today's Times and Guardian concur and offer some good insights into the issue of mental health. Well worth a read to peel a little of the stigma away.