Contemporary society has achieved a great deal with science and technology; nevertheless the number of people suffering from mental illnesses increases every year. Depression is the subject of this work, for it is an incapacitating illness, damaging its sufferers, their families and the whole society, as it affects millions of people worldwide. The present study aims at understanding and describing the depressed person's experience. Data collection was carried out at a Centro de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS, or in English, Center of Psychosocial Attention) located in São Paulo county, by means of interviews using the Oral Life History methodological framework. Six collaborators took part in the study. Data were analyzed according to content analysis and interpretation was undertaken using theoretical principles from Human and Social Sciences. Depression is a historically experienced illness and, thus, results were divided into three categories comprehending the lived experience with a past, a present and a future within life history, as seen by collaborators. The past is recounted as distressful, painful and heavy-remarkable events are brought to light and perceived by the collaborators as a whole, as if they came together, gathered and accumulated as a heavy burden to be carried by the sufferer. During the present phase, depression takes over and encompasses life to a certain extent that life becomes merely background. This category also includes living with symptoms, suicides attempts and search for etiology and treatment. The probability of a possible future is seen by some collaborators who can glimpse a dim light at the end of the somber tunnel of depression. This work made it possible to understand that people have different lives, projects and needs and that the therapeutic project and the care provided by the nurse must be directed to attend to their uniqueness in the world.