How to Deal With Depression

When "temptations" come our way we become depressed/worried.
(Especially after we give in to them.)
So when James the apostle writes, "Count it all JOY when you fall into diverse temptations"(James 1.2),
we can paraphrase it like this,
Count it all joy when you become depressed/worried.
Yes, he is advising us to turn to emotion,
the emotion of joy,
as the way to climb out of the pit of despair.

But joy based on what??
We're to rejoice that we have the opportunity to "endure temptation"
without giving in,  
the chance to win instead of sin !!
Each temptation is a test of strength.
But "The joy of the LORD is our strength"(Nehemiah 8.10).
So if we rejoice in the things of God, we receive the strength to resist temptation.
In other words, the good pleasure we find in God satisfies our need for pleasure.  
So we don't need to resort to animal pleasures.
James tells us that temptation is the "trying of our faith" (James 1.3).
So if "the trying of your faith worketh patience,"
that's like saying temptation "worketh patience".
"But let patience have her perfect work.
That you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing."(James 1.4).
Apparently, he expects us to fail the test several times before we pass it  --  
by resisting what is tempting us.
If so, having the victory = outgrowing the evil that we used to want so much.
In other words it's a plain old maturation process.
 
Next, James says,
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God...and it shall be given him."(James 1.5). Wisdom means to learn from your mistakes, it seems to me.
But then he says, "Ask in faith, nothing wavering...A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways"(James 1.6-8).
Yes, after we learn that a particular sin is nothing we need,  
our other side, the animal nature we have,
always wants to go back and do it again.
(which means we're "double-minded").
So "wisdom" here means to overrule the "beast" in us.
For the natural man is no better than the beast (Ecclesiastes   3.18-19 ).
Yes, we may not come into contact with animals, especially wildlife,  
But God's first command to our ancestors still applies to us today,
"have dominion over the animals, the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air"(Genesis 1.26-28).
For the parts of our brains that we inherited from the animals that preceded us -- they have to be ruled by the "prefrontal cortex",  
the part that is uniquely human.
That is the part that can conceive of God and heaven and eternal life(??)
If we focus on our status in Christ as
" a kind of firstfruits of His creatures",
not on our animal appetites/lusts(James 1.15,18),
then we won't be like a man who sees his image in a mirror but then forgets what he looks like(James 1.22-25).
Rather we will remember who we are,
and what our role and work are.
"And our deeds will be blessed"(James 1.25).