Yesterday someone died, for weeks they planned it, they even gave subtle hints about it. No one listened, and today they're gone, and loved ones are left to deal with the pain. Someone cries for them, they blame themselves or consider following behind them.

There are the signs that people talk about, depression, loss of interest in things they once loved, and a dramatic change in appearance. While those are common, they are not all, as a teenager, those signs were definitely me. But as an adult and being considered the strong one, depression looks different. It can be smiles, regular conversation, and laughter.

Despite the commercial and movies, depression has no face. Look at the many celebrities that have committed suicide, and no one knew how they felt. It seems like more and more people are falling victim to it. Letting the stress and life build up, causes many to take the only way they see out.

How do I know? That's been me. As an adult, I have an illness that apparently no doctor has the answer to. I have been dismissed, passed along and the whole time I am in pain, I cannot eat, and I am ultimately starving. Many people say that complaining about it doesn't change it. So here we are in a life where people don't want you to complain and everyone wants you to live your best life, but how, when your life is laying on a couch and coughing so hard that life doesn't seem imaginable.

At these times especially during the cold months, times get hard. Check on your strong friends, I see this post on Facebook often, but so many strong ones are leaving us and the ones behind always say, they didn't know. I am strong, but I also know how to reach into myself for strength. I know when I am not ok to tell someone that I am not ok. The hardest part is when I am reaching out for help, and I am dismissed. The famous term, 'pray about it.' Clearly, if someone is coming to you, they have already tried praying about it, and for them, it didn't work. Or maybe they were told to come to you.

We have to actively watch over each other. Suicide is becoming a bigger threat to my generation and teenagers below me. Social media has a lot to do with it I believe. Television also only shows people when they are doing good, and there are no shows about struggle out there. It's like the world wants people to believe that no one is struggling unless you aren't doing something right.

I am struggling. Not just financially, but emotionally, but I am fixing it. I am bettering myself and healing. But it takes someone to speak life into you. So the next time someone comes to you, don't look at them as complaining, listen to them. Speak and breathe life into them, because that could possibly save and/or change a life.