What People With Depression Want You To Know

1. We're not lazy or unmotivated.

Being depressed means you are in a permanent state of exhaustion sleep can't fix. That's why so many people with depression sleep entire days and wake up still feeling extremely tired. Sometimes, getting out of bed is a victory. Taking a shower is a victory. Finding the energy and will to eat is a victory. If all these minor things seem like victories, leaving the house and going to your work or school, seems like an enormous mountain you don't have the energy to face. We're not lazy - we simply don't have the energy to deal with things most people would deem as normal. Motivation is the hardest thing to come by and it is almost painful to not be able to have the energy and motivation to even do the things you love to do.

2. Depression is physically painful.

Often times people forget to mention the physical symptoms of depression and focus only on the mental ones. However, the physical symptoms can be just as unnerving and difficult to deal with. From exhaustion, to difficulty focusing, to panic attacks, to nausea, to body soreness, to insomnia, there are many ways in which depression manifests itself in our bodies and each of them are just as difficult to deal with as the mental symptoms of this illness.

3. Depression is really boring and much more than just being sad.

Not having the energy or motivation to do anything is boring. Not being able to focus long enough to perform basic tasks without feeling drained is boring. Sleeping all day is boring. Depression is much more than being sad. Its boredom, it's a feeling of nothingness, it's sadness, it's exhaustion, it's not feeling good enough. It's a whole array of feelings and often times the absence of feeling - you don't feel joy and excitement about life, you just don't feeling anything. It's deeply, deeply boring.

Depression is such a difficult illness to live with and, yet, every day, more people are being diagnosed and are having to live with it. Let's start breaking down the harmful stereotypes around it and end the stigma.