Makes My Blood Boil

I have so much anger inside of me right now.  Guess I got over my emotional overload, because now that shit is just pissing me the fuck off.

Dusty (a very dear friend, whom I adore) posted a lil meme – it has a picture of a trail through the woods saying “This is an antidepressant”.  And then it has a photo of prescription drugs saying “This is a lifelong addiction”.  That is fucking dangerous bullshit, and I called him out on it. 

I wrote:  That is complete bullshit. You wouldn't say the same thing to an asthmatic, or a diabetic, or a cancer patient.  I just get really tired of people confusing "being down" and being depressed as the same thing. Sure, a trip out in the country will lift one's spirits if you are feeling down...it does not cure clinical depression.

And I do get so very fucking tired of people just using “depressed” as an adjective about any time they were a little sad.  I want to shake them and ask, “Oh, you were “depressed”?  How many days was it until you had the energy to shower?  How many times did you fantasize about killing yourself or harming yourself because it was that bad…but you didn’t have the energy to DO IT?”  Because, being sad for a few days because your significant other broke up with isn’t the same as being depressed.  People just toss it around like it’s NOTHING.  And I’m over here, fighting to keep my head above the water, drowning in depression.

And do we even need to talk about how this meme continues to reinforce the stigma around mental illnesses and the medications REQUIRED to deal with them.  And I’m fucking sick of it.  Again, if we were talking about a cancer patient, I highly doubt anyone would be telling them the medication is a “lifelong addiction” and that they just go for a goddamn bike ride in the woods to cure themselves.  I hate the goddamn double standard when it comes to psychiatric disorders and the proper treatment for them.