Think about it

How many of you are actually diagnosed with depression? How many of you want help, go get help, try to get better?
Think about it, most people in here really aren't depressed.

Oh my god.... You actually think that anybody in here, or elsewhere for that matter who is depressed would deny the chance to get better, and you think they wouldnt try to get better.!!!!

I know I don't have it it's just the teenager thing. But I know a lot of people who probably have it.

I was diagnosed with it officially when I was ten, but when I was seven they told me I had it. I get help for it all the time. It's an on-going battle that no one wants, but a lot of people do have.

If people simply walk around sayin "I'm depressed" that's not going to be true in more than enough cases, but those who are really depressed, they don't sit around doing nothing about it.

Quite often the depressed people are the ones you least expect. Thing is as this is a website, many people use it as a release for feelings they otherwise would just hold inside. I do agree that many of the people on this site are probably just emotional or something, however i know too many people with clinical depression to label anyone who feels depressed.

I know don't believe in diagnoses, i have had so many doctors and therapists diagnose me with so many different things. really what does it matter. My current psychatrist recently said to me that she doesn't like to give a diagnoses to the patient unless needed expecially when they are under 18 because what help does it do. it is a answer not a cure and its the cure that you should worry about.

I've been diagnosed three times. I want help, but real help is hard to find. I can't be fooled into happiness. I've tried different things, but it would seem depression is who I am. I could take pills, but I'm not much of a pill popper.

I agree with the two posts above me. Most disorders are over diagnosed, and a diagnosis means nothing anyhow. It is an excuse. I would rather not know some things about myself. I am what I am, and that's all that I am. And ^^, you're right. In person, I laugh more than most anyone, I look on the bright side often...you wouldn't expect much darkness in me. But in me, it is.

Kind of funny...my friend is writing a documentary paper featuring me. The paper is about the differences between a "normal" person's views on life, and a clinically depressed person's views on life. Ha.

PollyW, many of the posts on here are teenagers complaining about how hard life is and when people offer sound advice 95% of the time they complain we're being to harsh, they've tried that before or they can't do that because... etc etc.

*fAdInG~aWaY*

Yeah sorry, you are right about people not accepting advice, and really I can't talk for everybody else at all. It just makes me angry when people get stereotyped, even when you cannot see them and they are on the internet.

And you dont have to be 'clinically depressed' to be depressed.

What you have to realise is that depression effects so many people in so many different ways. I grew up and the first twenty years I was extremely confident in total control of my life. While there were times that I was lonely and coped with a few disasters generally I tended to regard myself as above "those problems weaker individuals had".

The last thirteen years has seen me spirelling downwards trying to keep my problems a secret. I've had two breakdowns, considering suicide on a daily basis it has been very hard. One of the hardest things is realising you have a problem and finding help. I was lucky I was forced to seek help because otherwise I couldn't say truthfully what I would have done.

The last two years have had their ups and downs but I am much more confident that I'm more in control.

Please don't condemn others. Some are just seeking attention others really can't cope. It the attitude of the negative ones that made me want to hide the way I felt.

And if you think seeking help is easy you couldn't be more wrong. Ask an alcoholic a gambler or a drug addict and you might get a similar answer.

People who say that they are depressed ... are calling out for help. Maybe they really aren't "clinically depressed", but if they keep getting ignored and shot down: it could turn into it. Obviously, people who talk about suicide and killing themselves WANT HELP. Or they'd just go out and do it.
But if somebody doesn't talk to them, and show them that it's okay, people like you (the author of this post) will drive them to the edge.