As reported at Beliefnet.com:

It is important, he said, to recognize that depression can be a response to messages of the media that “exalt consumerism, the immediate satisfaction of desires and the race to an ever better material well-being.”

Depressed people need to regain “self esteem, faith in their own capacity, interest in the future and the will to live,” John Paul said. They need to be part of “a community of faith and life in which they can feel themselves welcomed, understood, sustained and, in a word, worthy of loving and being loved.”

“On the spiritual route,” he said, “reading and meditating on the Psalms, in which the sacred author expresses his joy and anguish in prayer, can be of great help. Reciting the Rosary permits finding in Mary a loving mother, who teaches how to live in Christ. Taking part in the Eucharist is a source of interior peace both through the effect of the word and the bread of life and through becoming part of an ecclesial community.”

The causes of depression are many. Spiritual emptiness certainly contributes to it. However, let us not forget that research indicates there is a physical aspect to depression as well. Depression is not a failure of will. It is an illness which affects body and soul.