I've struggled with depression a lot too. I think the biggest thing for me is to always have something new going on. If my life doesn't have something new to be excited about i get super bored - and when im bored, i get depressed.

I'm not sure you have full-blown "depression" (a DSM-IV illness) as much as "situational unhappiness." But it's good that you recognize early on that you don't like some things and that's healthy - although playing some sports (even if you're forcing yourself, ask me how I know) can be healthy if at least for the social and exercise time. It's funny you mention "male" things -- I've just recently come to grips that the majority of organized sports don't REALLY appeal to me and I'm fine now just not caring about it nor faking it to fit in (I do like auto racing and MMA though).

As far as coming to peace - what in your life routine/pattern is contrary to your natural strengths? For me, I find I do get in a funk when my daily tasks are against my ENFP interests and functions. At one position I was in an office drafting lengthy and technical legal documents for months and basically wanted to die every day. Since the partner would travel for weeks I'd often be completely alone in the building and it was terrible. I've realized that even though I have the competency and knowledge of a subject, when I'm not doing tasks I am suited for I shut down exactly like an animal in a cage or zoo enclosure. Addiction can also be a problem when you're in this funk, since your brain is trying to find that variety and stimulus.

I don't have a cure but that's where I would start - accepting who you are fundamentally, and if it is ENFP, build from that and go with your strengths rather than fighting it.

Many ENFP's read what characteristics are typical of ENFP's on a website and fail to see that there are solutions within those explanations. We are "idea" people and "people" people. (www.typelogic.com/enfp.html) And that's where the answers lie.

ENFP's are ranked first among all sixteen types when it comes to using social networks as coping resources. (www.discoveryourpersonality.com/en...tml AND www.mypersonality.info/person.../enfp/) This means that when we are feeling blue, our very friends and family members are our best resources for helping us get out of our funk, moreso than for other types. What's the solution for preventing depression, then? Social network. Build a strong enough social network with people you can COMPLETELY trust. When I say completely trust, I mean guys you can tell your deepest darkest secrets to without fear of judgment. I only have one such friend, and that's enough for me. Others may need 3 or 4. After all, since ENFP's get bored and depressed when alone AND we are so fixated on how other people perceive us, we put ourselves into a vicious cycle where we won't get the help we need from our friends due to fear of judgment. See how this works? It sucks, I know. But you can break this cycle by forming that tight circle of friends who you know will not judge you and who you will not judge in return. This is crucial since we are "people" people.

Don't do things you are not passionate about. It will eat you up from the inside. Do things where you can make other people smile, laugh, or have a good time. That's how ENFP's find happiness.

When's ENFP's are truly passionate about what they do, people get drawn to them. How do you know what your passions are? Go commit to something and see how you like it. Stick with it for a month. Everything's theoretical to you until you get some real world experience. And that's the ENFP's greatest problem: the theoretical-real world disconnect. Because we operate on a very theoretical level, we don't know what things are actually like. ENFP's especially HAVE TO try things, instead of sitting in front of their computers daydreaming about what they'd like to do. As a personal example, I think I have some talent in singing but my parents always discouraged it. Imagine the paralyzing fear I had as I walked into a voice audition without telling them about it. Then the immense happiness I felt when the director told me that I did, in fact, have a voice for singing. That's a happy ending. The other story is my decision to enter the military (the Marine Corps, no less) after college. I went to OCS training, suffered for 10 miserable weeks, and told them that I didn't want to accept. The military is the absolute worst place for ENFP's. I had bought into the Hollywood propaganda thinking that I could be doing the cool shit they did on Transformers or Rambo. Not a very happy ending. But I was only able to separate the theoretical (what was in my head) from the reality (what was actually happening) after I committed to it. This is crucial since we are "idea" people.

Try it out.