This is something I frequently get on my high horse about and I'm so pleased to see this topic! I think there is still an alarming amount of ignorance about depression, what causes it and how it can be treated. What I would like to see (and I think it's kind of happening but very slowly) is a shift in attitude which means mental health is perceived similarly to physical health. Currently, I think, it is very hard for a lot of people to understand depression as an illness because the cause and symptoms of it are rarely easily visible. Also, the name is misleading. 'But everyone gets down sometimes!' is a common phrase which is belitting to many ill people.

Sorry about the wittering! I would like to see a separation of illness from personality. People who have suffered, for example, from cancer may allow it to form a part of their identity but no one would assume they must be a particular type of person. I would like people with depression to be just that - a person who is suffering an illness - rather than A Depressed Person. I hope that makes sense.

Furthermore I reckon that because so many find it hard to separate illness from personality, those with depression get discriminated against for being 'weak' or 'unreliable'. Once you have depression on your medical form it is much more difficult to find a job. It's also easy to tell someone to 'snap out of it'. It makes people very uncomfortable to see adults (or teenagers) being openly upset, especially in public places. I think that's maybe why people don't usually look twice at the person crying on a park bench.

Sorry again for the wittering on! Basically, to reduce discrimination I would like to see mental health being discussed with the same attitude as physical health, and the taboo on emotional expression being reduced.