@BigD, I do sympathize. Poetry is useful, indeed I always think it odd that people believe poetry is all pretty fluffy things about flowers and birds and sunshine when in fact poetry can be some very raw and nasty stuff, sinse it's often the  only way to really set down some very strong emotions.

There are a few other things you could also try. firstly, if the memories you mention are connected to some sort of traumer in your past look for something vaguely support orientated directed towards that sort of traumer. I don't mean a therapist, sinse while a good therapist can be helpful a bad one can do waaaaay more harm than good and it's not always practical or even financially viable anyway, but there are support sites and forums depending upon the nature of the traumer which can often be good places for venting sinse even if people there do not have similar circumstances they may know something similar enough to at least listen in a sympathetic fashion.

Phoning samaritans and just talking can be useful, although the problem with samaritans is that occasionally you get someone who's idea of listening is just to sit there and say "mmmm" Friends can also be good but that also presents problems depending upon your relationns with your friends.

Also, at risk of sounding like a bad self help commercial crying is quite legitimate and can be a useful releasing process, ---- oh and yeah, real men do cry.

Another thing you could consider to get you through those fugue states where everything but lying still is painful is the use of very dry, ceribral information such as lists of historical facts on wikipedia or tables in rp games. In a similar vane, stratogy games which employ pure logic can be very useful as a way to just get through emotionally bad moments without  collapsing sinse they don't involve emotion at all. Spacial or logic puzzles, cardgames against the computer, resource management or pure business type games, maybe sudocu or boggle type monopoly puzzles if that is your thing.

hth.

Animals have a remarkable way of taking away bad moods, bad memories, bad and angry emotions, at least for me. While I don't suffer from depression, I do from time to time just kind of get angry, and just being around a dog or a cat and playing with them or petting them is like one of the most awesome ways of lifting that dark looming cloud away from me. And it happens instantly.

@Thunderfist and Ironcross, what your saying is what I'd deme as normal advice for feeling down, or pissed off or whatever.
The problem is, the sort of thing BigD is describing in his first post goes rather further than that, eg, not being able to walk.

Everyone feels down or miserable at some points and yes, listening to some music, walking your dog, calming down are all good things to try. However, there is a level where the depression can get so severe it becomes a literal form of disability sinse it causes you to be just as incapable of doing things as if your legs or eyes or hands didn't work.

At those times, frequently all you can do is hold on, metaphorically batton down the hatches and wait for things to pass, perhaps looking at some sort of professional help or prescribed anti depressants along the way.

In fairness this is a problem both with language and with culture, sinse a lot of people are very quick to claim they have "depression!" when in efect they just feel a bit down, for example one friend of mine who actually does suffer really severe clinical depression, for which she has both been on medication and in hospital (the kind that really does stop her from doing much of anything on her off days), once got very annoyed at someone who claimed! to have depression and used for evidence for this the fact that "he hadn't been out all week!" when in fact he'd gone to all his university lectures and gone shopping and had still got up, been around the house etc, ---- all he in fact meant is that he hadn't gone out to the pub with his friends all week, which is feeling unsociable, not "depression!"

It also annoys my friend when people tell her to just "cheer up" or on one occasion "stop behaving like a hysterical teenager", sinse in her case simply "cheering up" or changing attitude won't do the trick, this isn't her attitude it is something she simply happened to be born with (there is a family history), and actually her rationalization of it and coping mechanisms are something I'm always quite impressed by.

Similar and related matters occur in cases of ptsd and traumer recovery as well, sinse frequently a ptsd sufferer doesn't get a choice about what they're feeling either, and it's often a case of simply trying to cope with things at the time.

As someone who also has had bouts of rather severe clinical depression, I agree with what Dark is saying.
In fact, if I knew a couple of the people who responded personally, and they told me some of the things that were said here, I would have been rather offended. As it stands, I'm able to detach emotionally from such comments because they're on a forum, and, besides, I'm currently in a fairly stable place at the moment as far as my depression is concerned.
But one thing I personally can't stand is when people hound me continuously for a reason as to why I feel that way when I'm particularly down. I've been told, "oh, come on, you don't just feel that way for no reason!" So, depending on how persistent the individual in question is, and, trust me, I've known people who really don't let the subject drop, I have to use my limited energy to try and pull something out of the air to justify how I feel. All that does is make me feel even more horrible, not to mention harassed.
Almost as bad are the people who, like Dark said, insist that you should just grow up and stop being attention seeking. It's attitudes like that which cause lots of people to never ask for help, because, let's face it, we've all done things in our hormone-addled adolescences that were overdramatic, pathetic, and downright stupid. So to be compared to that over and over again as an adult is beyond humiliating.

Somewhere on the internet, there are lists that have been compiled where people wrote the best and worst things to say to a person who is clinically depressed. And while these lists are a bit trite, and some of it will probably make you say, "duh, that's common sense", they are worth reading if you really want to understand how depression affects people. If anyone is interested, I can probably hunt down those links; they should be on the Wayback machine, if nothing else.

Heh. Mine isn't so much clinical, just the ripples of a massive wave. If I'm saying that right, who knows?
It's always the people with disabilities that are the most fun or encouraging to be around.
But I swear, the next person who asks me who helps me use the computer, who reads and writes my emails for me... :@
Used to have a golden, actually. Had to rehome her, and she's doing well over there, but she'd wait outside doors for me. Never needed a leash for her.
I too would be interested in seeing that list. See what kinda silly things made the top worst.

A circle unbroken and pure,
of love and trust so simple and true
But you were always in my space, you threw my trust in my face,
and split the circle in two.