Depression… What is it? Depression is a very complicated mental illness. It’s something that is very hard to describe, understand and notice. 

Depression is classified into two different categories; Clinical and situational. Situational stems from something that has happened in your life, but clinical on the other hand is an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. Many people believe it’s super easy to cure, “just have fun and be happy” but when it’s the chemicals in your brain that are out of balance, it becomes so much more difficult. 

This disease, unlike many others, is not a one size fits all type of thing. In one case it can be completely obvious that a person is depressed, and in another case, you would never know that person is depressed even if you think you know everything about them. One thing that we all have to realize is that anyone around us can be suffering but they just know how to conceal it well. 

Having depression is much different from just feeling sad. It is a disease that eats away at a person and everything they do. It is not just being tired and sad, it’s almost as if you just stop caring about everything, not even sadness, just not caring; not caring to hang out with friends, not caring about school, any activities, and at some point your own self. You lose excitement for anything and everything, you don’t look forward to anything, you just kinda go through the motions. There are varying degrees of everything and people are very different. What may affect one person one way, may affect another a different way. We all experience situations differently. 

There is a big stigma around people that have depression, how they are “lesser” people, can’t hold a job, are broken, etc. But the truth is that and the negative stigma makes it difficult for people to reach out and get help because society teaches them that feelings of vulnerability are considered weak and unacceptable. People can also stigmatize themselves by feeling shame and guilt because of who they are because of the way that society makes them feel. There is a difference between feeling depressed and being depressed, the feeling that we may feel is sadness, so instead of saying “I’m so depressed” why not say “I’m sad’ or “I’m bummed out” just finding different terminology. You never know who you may be hurting or offending by desensitizing this illness, and any illness as a matter of fact. Choose your words wisely.