Depression isn't easy to develop into a compelling narrative. The trap is when the character is in constant victim-mode. In other words, they don't/or are unable to struggle in the face of obstacles. Sadly, "Helen" is an unfortunate film that fell into that trap. Ashely Judd acted her butt off, but the script is a big fail.
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Depression is very acurately depicted in this movie but, alas, too often one needs to know what this strange and so painful illness is to really understand the long journey.
I hope you'll never fall in such an inside hell and self-destruction mode the way myself and so many people had/have to fight against but at least try to read articles on the subject to learn empathy for depressive people. "Unable to struggle in the face of obstacles" is the current manner to react but I'm sorry to say it's as erroneous as insensible.
Years of self-reconstruction is a very brave journey. Would you be that brave if ever you'd fall in depression one day ?
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"Don't act, be !" (Kate Winslet)
@Ariane,
I don't think you read my post very well. I'm not arguing that depression isn't real or difficult to deal with. Only that for the purposes of narrative or storytelling it is hard to do well. In the case of this film it was not handled well at all. Maybe an analogy will help you understand me better: if you write a song it is composed of several different notes. That's what makes it musical. If you just played the same note over and over in exactly the same way then it wouldn't be a song. You'd call it noise. This film was basically the same note played over and over. A story needs ups and downs and struggle. inherent in struggle is fight, not just being a victim to every force. Yes, in real life some people get depressed and melancholic, but it just doesn't work very well as narrative.