WOW! I love this thread. I just read the article about learned helplessness and it really resonated with me. I also suffer from depression, and have had this feeling that labelling myself as powerless and doomed to fail without that which can't be mentioned in this section created a self-fulfilling prophecy in which I repeatedly failed and each time it was worse.
Interesting thing for me is that it was written by a pastor who espouses both spiritual approaches with cognitive-beahvioral ones. Totally up my alley (as a person who believes that science and faith need not be mutually exclusive).