Seconded. You're going to get rejected, it's just par for the course, but it can be hard to handle if you're in a bad place. I personally only try to date when I feel emotionally stable. Can try something like chatroulette or omegle though.
You can always approach it as “just dipping your toes in the water”, and tune your expectations accordingly. There is really no correct way to use an online dating platform, though there are some wrong ways—e.g. harming yourself or others).
Yes, going into it with a healthy and open mindset is essential. But being depression-free is not a necessary condition, and I’d caution people against establishing that type of artificial gateway for themselves. My belief is that every human is of infinite value, and nothing that happens in the online dating realm can subtract from that (“you don’t do arithmetic with infinity”, so said my calculus professor).
