chatmouth

[balmy scroll]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[late mulch]

I'm not really sure what the confusion is, you haven't provided anything that contradicts.
"Depuis" generally implies the present perfect progressive (which is just the present in french), is that what's confusing you?

[rare walrus]

Either/or? No, it simply has both, and the distinction is only maintained in English. The simple past is used to describe actions that happened sometime in the past (usually a longer than a day) whereas the present perfect is used to describe actions that have some relevance today. The difference between, ‘I lost my key’ and ‘I’ve lost my key’ is time: the first states the past action (I lost my key sometime in the past) whereas the second puts emphasis on its relevance today (I lost my key and I still have not found it). Both sentences will be translated into French as the passé composé « J’ai perdu ma clé ».
The passé composé has both of those functions: It describes something happening in the past either without a time or a long time ago (Je suis allé en France l’année dernière), and something happening in the past with relevance to today (J’ai voulu être médecin).

[languid moon]

Okay, that helps a lot. That makes more sense. However, how would this apply to a sentence like "J'ai été malade."? It's understandable that in the first sense that the person is no longer sick, but in the second sense, I'm not sure if it's accurate to infer that the person is still sick in the case of any relevance to the present, as that would be better suited as "Je suis malade depuis ...", right? So, not sure about that.

You might have also said "J'ai toujours voulu être médecin", I think.

[rare walrus]

For state-of-being verbs, this is where the additional nuances of passé composé/imparfait come in. Passé composé here emphasises the action whereas imparfait emphasises the habit/repeatability; « j'ai été malade » might be a one time thing (acute) whereas « j'étais malade » is repeated (chronic).
Also, relevance to the present doesn't imply that the described action is still on going, just that the consequences of that action still have an impact today. In the « j'ai voulu être médecin » example, something made me decide to want to be a doctor, and the consequences of that something still is relevant today (I still want to be a doctor). In your « j'ai été malade » example, it doesn't imply that you're still sick, just that your sickness' consequences are still relevant today. « Je suis absent parce que j'ai été malade toute semaine ».