There's such a stigma in today's world when it comes to people with depression. Nobody is truly very educated on what depression actually is and yet they continue to assume that being depressed means crying all the time or wanting to end your life. That is not the case, I have had depression for nine years and unless you really know me you'd never be able to tell.
Having depression doesn't mean I'm sad ALL THE TIME.
A person with depression doesn't have to be sad every single day to fit the stereotype placed on them by society. A person with depression will have good days as well as bad days. Miley Cyrus said it best in an interview with ET, "Just because a depressed person is having a better day doesn't mean they got better. The day is still grey just without any rain."
Having depression doesn't mean I'm a recluse.
Just because a person is depressed doesn't mean they hide away from the world. I wake up every morning and go to school or work, sometimes, I'll have a huge smile plastered on my face and other times I'll walk around with a killer RBF. I go out with my friends on the weekends, I go on dates and I spend time with my family. Some days doing these things will be easy and some days they'll be hard but I don't hide from the world. I will have my days where I don't talk to anyone or won't want to leave my room but being depressed doesn't mean I shy away from the world.
Having depression doesn't mean I don't know how to love.
I love my friends, I love pizza, I love sleeping, I love to read, I love to write, I love to sing, I love the beach, I love animals. The list of things that I love goes on and on. Just because a person is depressed doesn't mean they lose the ability to love. It's just sometimes that the beautiful things a person with depression loves has a bit of a grey area around it. That doesn't mean we love it any less, it just means that although we love it sometimes it's harder to enjoy the simple things.
Having depression doesn't mean I'm looking for attention.
The past nine years of my life I have never once stood up in the middle of a room and said feel bad for me because I'm depressed. No, it doesn't work like that. It actually takes a lot for someone suffering from depression to open up about it to their friends or family because they're ashamed. Nobody is proud to say that they suffer from this because mental illness is not treated the same way a physical illness is treated. A child will say they have a cold and will be given medicine. A child will say they're sad and be told to get over it.
Having depression doesn't mean I take medication.
Yes, there are was to help depression. Yes you could get prescribed medication such as Zoloft, Prozac or Paxil to name a few but that doesn't mean every depressed person is on medication. There are thousands of untreated cases of depression in the world but that doesn't make a person any less depressed. To be given the medication you initially have to open up to someone about it and for some people that could be really hard. You can live with depression every day and not take a single pill. It all depends on the type of person you are and the methods in which you choose to cope.
Not having depression doesn't give you the right to tell someone how to feel.
The worst thing to do in the world is to tell someone they aren't depressed and they need to get over it. You DO NOT know. You never know what I person struggles with every day and you do not know how hard it can be for them sometimes. So if your friend comes up to you and says they think they're depressed your first instinct should not be to jump down their throat saying that they are not. The first thing you should want to do is listen to them because opening up about depression takes a lot of courage.
