How can I stop letting my depression make me feel like a burden to others?

you can't, you really can't. Because depression is not just some sickness you control or go against with pills and cold water. It is not a fever but emotional and mental condition which is not directly under your control. You need to change, your routine needs to change, your life... and I know it is hard, it needs a push but doing the same and expecting different reasults is unlogical. And the feeling of being burden to others? yeah... it never fades away fully. But thinking about it makes it a lot worse. So, perhaps, stop thinking about it that much by thinking and doing different things, things that bring you joy.

Depression occurs because life happens. It is only because of differences in circumstances that makes one more vulnerable than another but it can happen to anyone. Considering this premise, the feeling of being a burden to others when one has depression could not really be avoided sometimes no matter how much assurance s/he receives from his/her support group. Instead the feeling of gratitude should be exploited to inspire hope and confidence that things will get better even though how much the void and emptiness inside seem paradoxically too heavy and exhausting to bear. Help cannot get through a person if s/he will not be receptive of the help that is being offered. It is only in dark times that one can be brave to accept help and relearn to trust the essentially benign universe.

The first move on any journey is taking the first step. Knowing you have something to work on is already a step in the right direction. Look for opportunities to strengthen yourself and how you interact with others. Talking out why you feel the way you do is very helpful. Getting to the root of why you started feeing this way and having the right help for you is very important to making this journey a success. The fact that you want to be better for others is commendable, however want be better for you first. What you think about yourself matters more.

You do not need to worry too much about this issue. This is because your depression is not something you chose, it is not something you have full control over, and you are not burdening others on purpose. So be kind to yourself and focus on your wellbeing, because when you feel well you will feel less worried about your unwanted effect on others. If the people you are concerned about are close to you, they would know what you are going through and they would be understanding and supportive. If the people are not too close to you, such as work colleagues, you don't have to explain to them too much, you can just say something like "I have some hard days occasionally so forgive me if I am not myself on those days". Everyone goes through a lot in life, so people would be more understanding than you think. Don't worry.

I can realize that everyone suffers, everyone has a burden to bare, but even in my depression I can be useful to others. I can realize that those that are helping me through my depression actually enjoy and get something out of providing help. While I certainly don't want to wallow in depression, getting help is critical for both the help seeker and helper. I can realize that people can learn from all moods and experiences, personal and of other people. I can make an effort to judge nothing that occurs as bad or good. Rather I can accept what is, and in doing so I can gain the strength to move through it.

You should never feel as though you're a burden to others. one method I used to use to make myself get over the "burden" stage was building up my Self-Esteem around others and I worked on improving my relations with people I knew. I personally felt that people around me didn't always understand what I was feeling and building relations with them to show them and explain to them properly what I felt like also helped me not feel as such a burden as they understood a lot more. Its not an easy process to do and it took me nearly a year to do such but it was definitely worth it for me.