When you’re lonely, you don’t become cripplingly hopeless and withdraw from life? You just contact some friends or easily make new friends and have a good time and carry on with life?
When you’re driving your car and everything is fine until you come to a stoplight, you don’t suddenly become depressed at the stoplight like I do?
When you wake up every morning, you don’t have crippling existential dread? You just get up and go about your day cheerfully, without analyzing the futile meaninglessness of the big picture?
Making friends as an adult is still hard even without depression. It is easier to be in touch with existing friends when not depressed though.
Traffic lights tend to leave me with feelings of frustration if anything.
I don’t have existential dread in the mornings just the usual “joy” of having to go to work.