Depression and Religion

[GrowingPains]

First of all, sorry if this topic has been talked about frequently, i am very new here and i browsed a few pages without seeing anything. So if it's been done just point me in the right direction and i'll delete.

I am an atheist, and have been from a very young age (around when i stopped believing in santa clause), but i am also battle depression and have been for the last few years. I constantly see religious people everywhere that worship some higher power outwardly appearing so happy and "fulfilled" like their life has some sort of deeper meaning. I believe religion gives people a lot of hope in a lot of hopeless situations, and that this in turn could lead to less depression amongst religious people vs. non religious people. Thoughts?