"Depressed" is Not an Adjective

Whenever I open Instagram and see the stories of teenagers my age, I look at the monotonous parallel universe of hopelessness and sad quotes for unknown reasons under the name of depression .

Let me tell you an example - teenagers who post VHS-edited Simpson videos on their stories, playing music in the background and writing "pls kll me" or "I'm not ok", waiting on hot bricks for the people's replies to be "what's going on?" or "are you okay?" They usually claim they're 'depressed', but are they?

The word "depressed' became the ordinary and made it hard to differentiate between who is just in the mood for "depression" today and when someone is really suffering. And by suffering, I really mean it; comparing our sadness to a serious mental illness is tremendously misguided. Surprisingly, those who really suffer actual depression tend to hide it and are not proud to show it. Depression doesn't necessarily have a shape or appearance like the stereotype we share on our stories. You'll never know how someone's feeling.

However, we should still validate those who suffer from mere sadness - lack of love, care and attention forced some people to ask for it in different ways and one of them is getting incorrectly self-diagnosed with depression, especially on social media . If you see someone you know - your friend, your sister or brother - suffering, say something; they need it. They don't have to keep asking you to do it or ask someone else to fill this gap inside them.

And most importantly, it's not a shame to post your feelings, but claiming you have a serious mental illness when you don't is a catastrophe. Have you thought twice - are you mentally ill or is it just a bad day? Your feelings matter and you're appreciated. You just have to know the difference between mental illness and what we are going through. You can learn more about mental illnesses when you read or ask professionals about them. Most importantly, stay assured that depression is not a curtain to hide ourselves in ,it's not a TREND either.