Depression

is not a term to describe you having a bad day, nor a tool to validate yourself as a person with other people's attention.


This really pisses me off. And I can't be the only one.

When I see someone write on facebook or tumblr or formspring or whatever about how they've "always been depressed" or "suffer from depression" or "have been depressed since" whenever, without actually having any diagnosis or evidence of this, I just want to fucking shake them.

Depression is a mental illness that can have resulting physical effects; just as much as an eating disorder, an anxiety problem or an OCD. Depression and related disorders can lead to people withdrawing themselves from their social lives and cause serious personality changes. Sometimes people neglect their personal hygeine, don't change their clothes, avoid too much social interaction or generally avoid leaving the house. For the most part of the people who I see publicly stating their "depression", they generally try really hard to be noticed or popular or wanted or whatever you want to call it- it's not a personal issue to them, moreso a claim or fame or a method of attracting attention to themselves.

When people claim to not only know what this is, but actually suffer from it without a hint of conviction in their words, it really makes my blood boil. Depression is not having a bad day, nor is it feeling sad about a trivial matter. Depression is not just sadness but it's a lack of feeling, a sense of being subdued and detatched, permanently. Not one day where you feel down. Self-diagnosis for the most part is bullshit; and you won't find people who actually suffer from depression making it very public either. You'll also find it difficult to find any diagnosed mental illness who were diagnosed under the age of 18- because during this stage of rapid development and personal change, doctors recognise that you go through personal ups and downs. This doesn't mean diagnosis doesn't happen in the teenage years; but it is pretty uncommon.

This kind of thing is not the same as "I've had a bad day today" or "I've been feeling really down lately"- it's a fact of life that we'll all have lower moments. And fine, if posting that on facebook or wherever makes you feel better or gains you support, then do it. But it's not the same as claiming that you've got depression or have been depressed for however long, like it's some kind of self-appointed mark of character or another reason for people to shower you with attention. There's a difference between feeling what you may call depressed for a night, as opposed to actually being depressive.

To an extent, I know that this is futile. But something had to be said.

If you haven't eaten much one day, despite having no evidence of diagnosed issues with eating, d'you tell everyone you know you're anorexic? So if you're having an off-day, or week or even if the year has gotten off to a bad start- you do not have depression. You are not truly depressed. I wish I could show you just how dark it's made the lives of some people I really love and care about, because then you might just think about what comes out your mouth before you say it.

Rant over. This is a personal subject for me. I do not only find this trend of self-confessed "depressed" teens confessing themselves daily unbelievably annoying, but also offensive to sufferers and their friends and families.





Well, how's that for a first post?