Major Depressive Disorder, also called and known as clinical depression, is a crippling mental illness that affects millions worldwide. Categorized by a "persistent feeling of sadness or loss of interest, excessive sleepiness, lack of concentration, and irritability," depression haunts and alters the daily life and activity of the person if affects. Depression most commonly is caused by a lack of "the happy neurotransmitter", serotonin, in the brain, causing the host to feel very sad and become very moody. Depression can also be triggered by the environment, hormone changes, underlying medical conditions such as hypothyroidism and polycystic ovarian syndrome, and depression is also inherited from family members that may have had the illness as well. Mental illness has become more talked about over the last few years because people finally want to break the stereotype surrounding them.

People who are affected by depression have labels such as "lazy", "Debby downer", "boring", amongst many painful others. These labels and stereotypes are so damaging to those that have to live with the illness every day of their lives. As someone that has suffered through some of the effects of this illness, there are some extremely important things my depression wants you to know about me.

I'm not "lazy." I really am that exhausted sometimes.

Depression often causes sleep disturbances such as insomnia, and altering one's sleep patterns can cause them to feel incredibly tired quite often. Typically, this will make me appear like I need sleep all of the time. And sometimes, a little cat nap is all I need to get through the day.

The littlest things could make me extremely sad, or even cry.

I'm being one-hundred percent serious when I say that I have started crying because I dropped something, accidentally misspelled a word or something just didn't go how I wanted it to. Bad days are really bad days, and the small things can feel like the end of the world sometimes. Telling me that it doesn't matter or it could be worse literally helps nothing, so don't say that. Please.

Sometimes I need a push to get back into my "norm."

Make me go on a walk with you, force me to hang out with all of our friends, beg me to go to the store with you. Being a friend means being supportive and the best way you can support me is to not let me lurk in my sadness even though it seems like that's all I want to do. Getting back into some sort of a routine can help change one's mood for the better.

No, I don't see it as "you don't have it that bad."

Depression is a chemical imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain, not someone being a brat because something didn't go their way. My brain, for whatever reason, does not produce enough serotonin and that causes a number of issues. It forces me to see things in a more negative light rather than a positive one, therefore you perceive me as a "Debby downer" when really, my lack of serotonin causes feelings of hopelessness and failure. Saying "you don't have it that bad" isn't going to help anything. At all.

Refraining from talking about your problems doesn't really help anything either.

Feeling like your friends are constantly walking on eggshells when they talk with you is an easy way for me to feel like I'm at fault. It's me. I'm the one causing this. Completely avoiding conversation about what's going on in your life isn't going to change anything. Continue on as normal; it makes me feel like I'm still included despite everything.

The best thing you can do is listen.

You might not know what to say when I tell you what I'm feeling or what's wrong, and that's okay. It's okay to not know how to respond. And it's okay to not understand my feelings or to understand why I feel the way I do. I pray you never have to understand. But it's better to just be my crying shoulder and tell me that you're there for me than to say the wrong thing. Sometimes bad things are said with good intentions. It can be tough.

Lastly, I'm still the same "me."

Above it all, I'm still the same friend that laughs excessively at things that aren't very funny, loves tacos and Den Pops, enjoys drives, and thoroughly adores Puddles. I'm not defined by my depression. Sure, it makes life a little hard and it makes being my friend even harder sometimes. But I love you for helping me through something that's so difficult to manage.

Depression affects millions, with the rates becoming staggering in young adults in college. Instead of placing labels, we need to begin to understand that depression is an illness, not a phase of young person laziness. It affects our best friends, classmates, boyfriends, girlfriends, lab partners, sorority sisters, athletes, and even people that seem to "have it all together". And I hope that we begin to see a shift in how depression is handled as a society.

If you know someone who’s depressed, please resolve never to ask them why. Depression isn’t a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression just is, like the weather.

Try to understand the blackness, lethargy, hopelessness, and loneliness they’re going through. Be there for them when they come through the other side. It’s hard to be a friend to someone who’s depressed, but it is one of the kindest, noblest, and best things you will ever do. -- Stephen Fry