Shiny Happy People

A few days ago, I had a conversation with someone about the stigma of depression. It's something that royally pisses me off. Not just a little... we're talking a severe psychotic fucking hatred of this little fact. It's so unfair that we're supposed to make accomodations for every other condition on the planet, but once you hit mental illness (esp. depression), you get the "get over it" attitude that plagues our society. It's utterly unjust. You don't tell someone with cancer to just "get better". Or someone with a terminal condition "don't die". But it's okay to tell someone with depression to pull themselves up by their "bootstraps" and "get it together". Why can't there be some sort of public education on this condition. A person who cuts themself doesn't do it because they want to, they do it because they lack the coping skills to fix the problems they confront. People with depression don't choose to be sad and not be able to get out of bed - they actually just cannot do it. And to be blunt, all the commentary made to them to get over it, only makes the depression worse and worse because they want to get over it. They wish it were that fucking simple, but guess what Skippy, it's just not.

I've been struggling with depression since I was 12 or 13. It's never been an easy road. During adolescence, I was told it was just puberty getting the better of me. I even asked my mother once if I could see a therapist and was told that my "weird" brother was the one who needed it more than I did. I've since forgiven her for this, but holy Christ did that hurt. Being medicated was the best thing that ever happened for me and I will likely never stop being medicated. I'm not cutting every day like I used to, and I'm actually happy on a somewhat consistent basis. I just get so pissed off when people take such an ill informed stance on this subject. I work for people who take this stance and they don't have compassion for this. I looked up their position on depression, and it's not even there. It's not covered under their medical conditions they'll make allowances for. Sure there's an employee suicide hotline, but that's as far as it goes. I believe in compassion. I believe in empathy and I believe in allowing leaves of absence to obtain treatment - even if they're unpaid.