In my experience with depression, I actively fought the people who wanted to help me—because I thought I didn’t deserve any help. I did give in because I knew there was something wrong and I really didn’t want to spend my life that way (short life too).
But I never got to the staring at walls, unable to get out of bed stage. I’ve never checked in to the hospital like most bipolar people I know. Once my shrink asked me if I wanted to, and my vehement negation came from within, not from my mind. I think I was talking about wanting to give up on myself at the time.
But, in a way, my experience was like yours. Your friends convinced you to go. In my case, my wife convinced me to see a professional. Whenever I hear of someone who is in trouble and the people who care about them ask what to do, I suggest they give the same message, over and over: “check yourself in.” I think hospitalization helps a lot of people.
I think one problem is that people don’t know what they have a right to do. Are they allowed to make the person answer the door? Are they allowed to force themselves into their friend’s company? Are they allowed to do what they have to in order to urge the person to get help?
I think most people don’t want to piss off their friends by being too forceful. I think what most depressed people want is love. They will test the love by pushing it away. What they really want is for the friends and loved ones to insist. What the friends and loved ones think is they have gone too far. It takes serious love to overcome this dynamic.