I suffer

I once again was watching TED TV and watched a brave young man talk about his battle with depression. He said four powerful words, "I suffer from depression." Why did I think this was brave, partly because so many people suffer from this in silence and I too SUFFER from depression. No this is not a tell all of my life, but it is time to stop being silent. More people do need to talk about it, me being one of them. I have never told anyone outside of my family and very very close friends what I have been struggling with over the last year and a half. I want to be as brave as this young man was for speaking to a crowd of people who might judge him. Like he said depression is not just being sad, it goes beyond that. I am not going to bore you with the DSM-V definition of depression, but I will tell you this, its crippling at times and impacts more than just the person who is suffering from the illness. I use the word illness because that is what it is. It can manifest itself into strange physical aliments, and only make the situation harder to deal with. Its an illness and a lot of people just view it as weakness, someone who can't deal with life. Its not like that, its like cancer. It can consume your entire being and take you out in one round; if not dealt with. A lot of people judge and say just relax and be happy. That is like telling an anorexic to eat and just gain weight, its not that easy. I think it is essential to the person dealing with this illness to actually say it out loud to start to come to terms with the diagnosis and start the process of healing. It has been therapeutic to write like this everyday. This being the hardest post I have ever written, mainly because you don't know how people are going to take it. Judge me however you see fit, but there is only one person whose judgment matters to me:myself.  Go  out and be kind to people, you never know what they are dealing with and your kindness could make a world of difference to them. So, there my brave moment is over just in the moment it took you to read this post!