I think, especially in American society where there is a heavy emphasis placed on having a workaholic work ethic, anything that interferes w/a person's ability to be ultra-productive, be it chronic pain or depression or social anxiety, is looked down upon.

A lot of times I look down on myself because the depression has stripped me of all ambition & motivation. I can't formulate or achieve goals and a lot of days it's a major struggle just to take a shower, eat & force myself to go to work. I know in my heart-of-hearts that a sabbatical would probably be very healing for me, but I can't afford to take the time off. I also hate myself for being weak enough to seek outside help - I hate being needy.

My supervisors at work think I'm a slacker because when I have spare time at work, I'm not multi-tasking - they don't understand that on most nights, it's an almost physical effort to make myself simply stay at work. My in-laws think I'm stubborn and lazy because I 'refuse to improve myself'... but they don't understand that it's not because I don't want to improve myself, but because 90% of the time, I can't. I can't work more hours or three jobs, go to school and keep the house in pristine Martha Stewart condition all at the same time. My sisters think I'm selfish and self-centered as well as lazy because I can't work, go to school, keep my house clean and be a social butterfly/free babysitter... my friends think I don't love them anymore because I can't set my life aside to support them through pregnancies and marriage troubles... to all of them, there's nothing wrong with me except for my 'self-centeredness'. And none of them have the patience to listen to me on my dark nights of the soul - they'd rather call me & use me as a shoulder to cry on about their woes and what a lousy person I am...