Depression affects nearly 6.7 percent American adults per year. Three percent of children and 13 percent of adolescents have been diagnosed with clinical depression. These percentages may be small, but don’t let them fool you into thinking that depression is a small issue. For all suicides per year in the United States, depression is found to be the cause of at least 67 percent of them. In a world where the majority of people are empathetic, depression is a huge issue not only because it is sad and crippling, but because it changes a person into something else.

I was going through different forums and I read numerous opinions on depression, coming to the conclusion that a lot of people seem to think that depression is a very self-centered disease. Even though it may come off that way, I promise you that it is not. That, however, does not mean that the disease does not exist.

Depression focuses on the ‘me’ factor. Most of the time the person is not trying to be self-centered, it just comes off that way because they feel overwhelmed by issues. We all think this way to be honest, some more than others, but some of us just find it easier to look at the bigger picture instead of just seeing the world through our own eyes.

One of the reasons why depression can be so blinding is because it can be caused by stress. When you are stressed out, it is easier to just focus on your situation. You feel antsy and may not make proper or rational decisions especially with adrenaline and cortisol rushing at increased levels through your body. You would be easily irritated if someone asked, “How could you be stressed, when you have nothing to stress about?” Being stressed all the time and having constantly high levels of those hormones could wear a person out making them chronically depressed.

Depression is caused by various factors, but think about the times you have gotten extremely upset over something trivial. The time when you got upset simply because someone was “too slow” to understand an answer that seemed obvious or the time when after a long day, you decided to put on some Netflix only to find out that your WiFi wasn’t working. For a while it may seem like your biggest issue until you find something “more important” to focus on. Think about a day that you felt at your worst and how upset you were. You knew somewhere out there people probably had it worse than you, but that didn't change the way you felt. Did it? Now imagine reliving that feeling until it becomes a habit. Will you only be focused on how unhappy you are, in spite of knowing some people may have it much worse than you do? That does not change the fact that people would think you are just being negative and self-centered at the moment. However, most of the time when someone is thinking “woe is me” they are not trying to be selfish, it is just that their problem is the one thing that has hijacked their mind.

Depression is a mental disorder where the person experiences constant sadness and disinterest in things that used to interest them, even life itself. There are also multiple types of depression like perinatal depression and psychotic depression. Depressed people shouldn't be looked down upon as "Debbie Downers." Some people put their problems out there just to get attention and to get the "woe is you" speech, now those are Debbie Downers. Depressed people do not usually like to "burden" people with their issues and sometimes will not go and talk to other people about it. Depressed people do not want to wallow in their sadness and a lot of times dislike it, or are often unaware of why they feel the way they do. It is a challenge for them just to get up and "be happy" again and some of them actually dislike when people sympathize or look down on them with contempt because of the way they are feeling.

People with depression could be judged as self-centered by people who don't understand or believe that it is a disease and the effects it has on the person. There are people who live without even knowing that they themselves are depressed. A depressed person could feel unworthy and undeserving of a lot of things and calling them selfish even when it was never their intention to be, may not help them see the bigger picture. They could feel worse after hearing such. Until people understand the effects this disease can have on a person's life, some people will view the person as self-centered. Regardless of how a person may define depression, depression is definitely not another word for selfishness.