Depression: a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad illness!  I hate it. Why is it that you can be drugged to the gills, practically a zombie and still feel “down”?  And don’t even get me started on panic attacks #%~##*!  How do you live with it? You just do, and you keep hoping one day you’ll wake up and everything will magically be alright. You will be able to function normally, you’ll be able to sleep without drugs, you’ll want to go out and live life to the fullest. You won’t eat to feel comfort, you won’t sit on the couch mindlessly staring at a tv, you won’t lie in bed writing a blog no one reads.

For most of my adult life I have suffered from depression.  A few years back I tried to take a break from the anti-depressants, yeah that didn’t work! When I went back on meds after that time the doctor told me to not go off them again, that I need to take them the rest of my life. How depressing!

And it’s still kind of taboo to talk about. The negative perception of a mental illness comes from not understanding mental illness. I wish they had never labeled depression a mental illness. Mine is caused by a shortage of some chemical in my brain. It will always be there, and it will always require medicine to be so called “normal”. Of course, we couldn’t call it a chemical dependency, that wouldn’t work. We could call it brain compromised. Nope, there is that word brain there and compromised means lower than standard. If people hear that your brain is lower than standard in some way, that is perceived as not good.

How about just plain illness? I’m also a type 2 diabetic. No one averts their eyes or mumbles platitudes when I mention that illness. So far, I haven’t needed medication for that, but who knows in the future I might. So how is that any different than depression. Why can I talk about diabetes and not depression? They’re both illnesses and both are caused by a shortage of something your body is not making anymore.

I gotta say Alexander I’ll trade your no good day for my no good illness any day!