Depression is a mental illness that is trademarked by a feeling of sadness. Many people define it as such and put no further thought into it. They are right, in a way, but there is more to it than that. There is a distinguishable difference between someone who had a bad day and someone with depression, and mistaking one for the other can be consequential. Society has a bad tendency of mistreating people with depression. They are told that they are broken, that their way of thinking is selfish and too pessimistic. People tell them to toughen up and “get over it.”
This stigma needs to be broken, and more people need to take depression seriously. I chose this topic because I am more familiar with depression than my own hands. It is part of my everyday
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Depression is a tumor that metastasizes with haste, kills without hesitation, and goes mainly untreated. I will show the reader that people with depression are in need of sympathy, not criticism.
Mental problems have become mainstream, and due to their misuse through the hands of those who want attention, they are not taken seriously. “Mental illness has been romanticized in the worst kind of way. This has caused an aversion to believing someone actually is suffering from one of these diseases. But illness should not be a trend, sobbing in a bathtub should not be beautiful and suicide should not be fantastical” (Archer, 2016, p. 1). People abuse depression to gain sympathy, and their childish outcries have slandered those who actually need help recovering from this disease. Other individuals view depression as an embarrassment, making an active effort to hide their depression, or that of a loved one, from the public. Wolpert (2001) said
“I found out that my wife, Jill Neville, had not told anyone that I had been depressed. She said that she was embarrassed about my being depressed and told friends and colleagues that I was exhausted and was suffering from a minor heart condition” (para. 2). This man’s wife was