[quonn]

> basically I had all of my dreams in life shattered [...]. The long-term stress robbed me of any self-confidence.

The following might apply to you or not - you have to decide yourself: You might have connected your self-confidence to your goals or dreams or success and are possibly also comparing yourself to others (jealousy). You need to let go of all that, since love for life is at the very bottom of everything, and does not come by struggling for it. There are countless reasons to live, as you have surely experienced before - you just can't see them right now. This will change eventually, and it's worth to stick around to get to see it. So that's one thing. The other thing is the situation you find yourself in, which you still might want to improve. To do that without becoming depressed, try to reserve a fixed amount of time to work toward any goals, without becoming attached to them. Just put in the effort every day for a fixed amount of time. If the things you want to change can't be changed by working towards them, you need to let them go, too.

Does this ring a bell? If not, each depression is different - and I hope some of the other comments help you.