"Oh, you have depression? Just be happy."
"I did so badly on maths test. I'm so depressed."
No. No. No. No. No. No. And no again! Depression is NOT a synonym for sad. Unfortunately it has become that in our modern world, but it really isn't.
If only depression were only being sad and a depressed person could be cheered up as easily as a sad person. If only life were that simple.
Depression more than just feeling sad. For me it's an all consuming emotional pain that eats me from the inside, hurting me to the point of me seeing the verge of my will to live. It's sadness to the point of feeling so numb inside that almost feel nothing, yet I feel so much at the same time. And what makes it worse is that there isn't an escape. I may find something to distract me for a little while, but soon after all that and more comes washing back.
"Sad" doesn't even begin to cover the immense self-loathing that comes with depression. Every positive thing immediately twisted into a negative one.
Are you good at telling jokes?
They're all laughing at you.
Do you have a good memory?
All the better to remember the bad things with.
Are you a good listener?
People are just using you, they don't care.
These are the types of thoughts that go through the minds of depressed people on a daily basis. (Okay, I know this is not true for everyone with depression so don't give me hate if you have depression and you aren't like this. You're one of the few lucky who don't then. Most people are like this.)
Don't tell a depressed person just to be happy, if it were that easy the majority of depressed people wouldn't have depression. Yes, we may torture ourselves with painful thoughts, but that is not sadness!
Getting a bad mark on a test? That's not depression. That's just sadness. Chances are you'll have moved on from it by the end of the day. It won't cause the deep emotional pain and that will keep you from sleeping for months, even years at a time. It won't cause the immense emotional pain and emotional scars depression does.
Sadness is an emotion. Depression is a serious mental illness. Don't use the two terms interchangeably.
YOU ARE READING
Shadowland
RandomWhat is the shadowland? The shadowland is the dark space depression puts people in. This is not your cliché story of a girl with depression who meets some guy who makes it better. We live in a world where this usually doesn't happen. This book expla...
