So Very Annoyed (Part 1)

Hello fellow strangers and people I pester to read my blog,
I have tried to avoid this subject because you guys hear enough about complaints but this is something I am extremely bothered by and I feel like people should know why this is before I bite their head off too much

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First of all, let me put you in the right frame of mind. Imagine you have depression and have been diagnosed recently so you still have to get used to it and tell anyone you feel should know. You spend days mentally fighting about whether to tell their friends about this revelation then finally come up with the bravery to tell them, hoping they will be understanding and sympathetic and they just look at you and say something like, “Oh yeah, I feel depressed sometimes too.” How would you feel if they compared an illness that you had been clinically diagnosed with to an emotion? This would not only discredit what you just said but make you feel like you are overreacting about something that everyone has sometimes.

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This is absolute bullshit. (Sorry to anyone who doesn’t like swearing) If this is you and you are one of the 6.7 percent with depression, I’m so sorry. Or one of the 2.3% of the population who has OCD and has to listen to people say, “Oh my gosh that makes my OCD hurt.” Or one of the many others who have to listen to people use an illness as an adjective. To learn more, click here or here or here or here

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Why does this matter so much to me? Here comes the part I was scared to talk about. I have been diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and depression, so this affects me directly, but I also know people who have told their friends and been told to stop being so dramatic because everyone goes through this kind of thing and just to try to be happier or try to focus (which by the way most of the time makes it harder to focus). When I hear about this, it pains me so much. 

I remember being so annoyed at my mom because she wanted to help me by telling my teachers about my ADD that I didn’t talk to her for a day in more than one word sentences. I was scared that they would think that I had ADHD which is different and judge me based on this but it’s been a week and so far my teachers seem pretty cool about it.

So to summarise, if you are going to joke about feeling so depressed or saying something is depressing, go ahead, just please think about the fact that you are discrediting an actual illness that is the 10th most common method of dying in the United States. If you don’t know if it’s okay, replace the word with a physical illness, and if it still sounds appropriate, go ahead and say it, but if not, please find another word to use instead, at least around me. Thank you for listening.