Depression and anxiety are two things in our society that have a stigma attached to them that has made them almost virtually impossible to be discussed. People living with depression tend to make attempts to hide it to avoid being criticized or asked too many questions. It is okay to live with depression and recognize that it is a mental illness.

I personally struggle with depression and tried to hide it for the longest time. Recently I have had to bring it to light and deal with it instead of ignoring it.

Depression is not something that can be ignored for long without consuming you and I allowed it to consume me without acknowledging how bad my mental health actually was.

The stigma surrounding depression can either be one of two things: fear or sympathy. People fear what they cannot see and while some people exhibit physical signs of depression most of it is mental and emotional. The other, sympathy, is when you tell people about your disease and they automatically feel sorry for you and offer their condolences. Neither is a good stigma to have.

By constantly dismissing those with any mental illness, we are making them feel like it's not okay to be going through a struggle and that they can not express that they are struggling with something. We as a society need to come together and support those that struggle with depression and need that little extra encouragement.

Depression and anxiety are not something that should be ignored and dismissed. If people would start recognizing that mental illnesses are legitimate diseases and we should be supporting those that struggle with them the suicide rate would go down and those struggling would get the help they need and deserve.