Wow, this thread really took off. I didn't know that Curie's vote was so big! About your efforts for curation and taking minnows to the front-page, I think that if Curie were bigger or if there were more projects like Curie, it would be more than possible to achieve this.

But as things stand now, we need a lot of money to promote our posts and there is so much paid content on the front page that it's really hard for whales to curate deserving minnows and collectively bring the best quality up for everyone to see.

I didn't know any of this about you and it's a really touching topic. I myself suffer from depression too and I've been struggling here on Steemit to stay motivated and to keep producing great quality content (sometimes, depression just kills any inspiration that I may have).

But I think that, as you have found selfless help to be what helps you move forward, I have found myself imposing goals on myself and these are actually very helpful. I post one article a day, for example, and I don't slack on picking the right bots and promotion channels, lest I devolve into my starting days where I could barely get one comment on my posts.

Thank you for sharing this. <3 It fills me with warmth to know that Steemit can bring so much good into someone.