My Answer: There isn’t an easy or short answer to this (without really getting to know you and your situation), but I will first say that while these situations you are dealing with are objectively difficult, depression isn’t necessarily a direct result of external situations. It certainly can trigger it, but there are many people in horrible situations and even if they are sad, they may still have that glimmer of hope that it will get better, and begin working toward it. That in itself may not immediately change their circumstances, but it will help the reaction to the circumstances so that they aren’t feeding the negativity of the external situation with their internal state.

So, even if depression was triggered by your situation, I would ask you to think of them separately. This will help you target the core of the issue and to not allow depression to continue to paralyze you or keep you in a negative spiral, since that only adds another issue on top of your circumstantial issues.

Next you’ll want to begin to identify things that you can do to change your life. You may or may not have done this already, but you have to try to look at the whole thing in a new light. Try to see it as a challenge that is going to only make you incredibly strong if you can overcome it. This is where knowing more about your situation and what specific limitations there are would be helpful.

But, difficult situations like this are often real opportunities to become creative and figure out what you may be able to do, even if it feels impossible in the moment. The more you look at it as a potential blessing in disguise, the easier it’ll be to deal with your depression.

I’m not sure what you mean by failing in your career for years – as in, what exactly that entails – but that would be a good thing to explore in terms of why you’ve failed, if it’s the right career for you, and what needs to be changed there as well.

Every situation in life can be seen as a test or a puzzle that you can put your mind to work on how to overcome it. You want to tackle your mind state first before anything else, because that will dictate your outer world. This is exactly what I do when I get a very bad bout of anxiety.

It feels horrible and destructive in the moment, but I make it a point to become a student of the anxiety and see how I might be able to use the difficult circumstances to develop myself in some way further.