It would be catastrophic to say that the entire human population suffers from depressive disorders. It would also be untrue to describe the disease as incurable. Nor would it be correct to say that a depressed mood or winter blues is immediately a condition that needs to be treated. What can then be said with certainty, based on the current state of knowledge? How do you live with depression so that you savour life and not just wait longingly for the end of each day? What rules must be followed so that treatment has a chance of being effective? I will try to answer these questions in the following article.