Disclaimer: this article may be too real for some and will contain truths many can't comprehend at first reading.

Ever have that friend that you have been talking to every day for a month, hanging out with nearly every day, getting to know well, feeling like you can predict them... then bam! Out of the blue, they just drop off the face of the earth, no reason why, no communication, no telling you where they are or why they are there?

If you silently or verbally answered "YES" to the above statement, then you have witnessed depression taking over someone's life without you knowing about it.

Depression. That horrible name most either fear or outright hate. What does it really mean? How does it really affect someone? Can you take a crowd of people and point at the ones with depression and be correct? I bet you couldn't!

Depression is a very real thing that has many different forms. You can sit in a room full of people and laugh hysterically, listening to jokes and playing games and still have depression. Alternatively, you can also sit in a room all alone, afraid to move an inch from the spot you are sitting in for fear of what you may do if you move... what you may pick up.

So what does it feel like to be on the receiving end of depression in a friendship?

The first thing that occurs is that you worry that someone already somehow knows and doesn't want to be your friend simply because of the big D we call Depression.

Second, we sit in a room full of people constantly saying over and over to smile and not look downright evil in the hopes that someone will eventually walk up to you instead of mistaking you for the devil's spawn...(humor intended).

Third, we awkwardly introduce ourselves, and when thinking of that one fun/unique fact about ourselves, our brain is in a fist fight with itself over "just tell them you have depression" and "umm well this one time I kicked a ball with my opposite foot." It ultimately ends horribly, and they just kind of look at you like, "Are you alright?" To which you want to say, "Hell no, I'm not ok!" Instead, you side smile, say sorry for your time and sulk back into your seat.

Then, you are back to step one. You now repeat the above steps, hoping for better success each time. Eventually, you find that one person who laughs when you tell that horrible fact about yourself. From there, you walk on ice throughout the entire short-lived friendship, battling whether or not to tell them about the big D or not, ultimately losing the battle and eventually losing the friendship as well.

Sounds fun, doesn't it? Or maybe it just sounds fake? But for anyone who actually has depression, they read this and nodded their heads the whole time thinking, "This is completely true!"

Now, I didn't really get to the dark stuff today, but it's kind of hard to in just 500 words... So, meet me back here next week, and I will bring you more words of wisdom with a sprinkle of humor added! Just like grandma always liked it.