Depression is an asshole

One of the most common things people are told when they are depressed is to 'get over it.' We are told to just feel better, to buck up, to stop feeling so down on ourselves. I'm not going to talk about how stupid that is. ("Just stop being depressed? why didn't I think of that?")

No, instead I want to talk about the other side of the argument. Because we say those same things to ourselves. We tell ourselves to get better. We tell ourselves to stop being so upset about everything, to stop feeling so down. That not everything is as bad as it looks, that things aren't all our fault.


The problem is, depression talks back. We tell ourselves these great, positive things, and then depression makes its own comments. It tells us that OTHER people aren't so upset about things. But since we are, it must mean there is something wrong with us. Or maybe there is something wrong with everyone else. Maybe everyone else is avoiding upset by being ignorant. Or stupid. Maybe we're upset because we're too smart. Or too observant.

Wow. Look at that. Depression makes us feel worse about ourselves by telling us that we are BETTER people. Insult through compliment.

And that's not the only thing depression will say. It might tell us that we are complaining too much. Other people don't complain. We must be weak. We must be incapable of functioning the way other people can. So either we're weak or we're complaining too much. If we're just complaining too much, that means we need to shut up and deal with it. We need to keep these problems to ourselves, the way everyone else does.

In other words... either we are weak and DESERVE to be depressed, or we complain too much and therefore shouldn't be able to ask for help.

Depression is a devious motherfucker. It's a real condition. It's not weakness. It's not superiority. It's a chemical imbalance. It's a disease. And it's a disease you can get yelled at for having.

But unlike other diseases you can get yelled at for having (like alcoholism or anger control issues), depression actually makes you feel like you SHOULD have it. It's a disease whose primary symptom is the feeling like it should be had. Like it's deserved. I can't think of another disease that does that. It's like having a cold and feeling like that's the way things should be. How ridiculous is that?