Depression reveals character if you don't survive it.
I don't think it builds it at all, it has just made me feel really fucking numb and unmovable.
SSRIs average the mood swings and maybe bring up the baseline, but for many it deprives them of orgasms and other peak experiences that sort of punctuate life in otherwise dreary circumstances. You may feel better, but like haTTer sez, after a while you sort of long for the last feeling that was real, even if it was real...bad.