People often feel a period of depression as part of grieving the loss of a loved one, for example. Is that the kind of life event you mean, @RedDeerGuy1? Ones that cause situational depression?
Unless I’m mistaken, situational depression is a time-bound depression in response to a specific life event or situation. It can be a natural and even healthy response to difficult or painful events… but the important factors are that it’s time-bound (has an end point) and is a direct response to a life event. Depression as a default state without an apparent cause, or depression that persists after a causal event, or depression that is negatively impacting someone’s quality of life regardless of its duration or cause, would seem like something more than that.
Even if the depressive symptoms are “mild” (not considered major or clinical depression), if it’s chronic depression, it’s still understood to have the same underlying causes as forms of depression that have more intense symptoms, and can still be addressed/treated. It doesn’t have to be a permanent state, or viewed as someone’s personality trait.
I still wouldn’t consider depression a result of someone’s humility, ego, or attention seeking, whether it’s technically clinical depression, something more like dysthymia (chronic “mild” depression), or a period of situational depression
I want to note I’m not an expert on any of this. I’m merely sharing what I’ve understood from what I’ve learned about it.