As far as public interactions go, I feel that if I try to talk about my depression with my friends (who a lot of them are also troubled teens) they will say how self centered I am and that their lives are so much worse. Basically say I have no reason to be sad and I should get over it. I don't necessarily always wear the "happy face" though, only around the people I think would notice and disapprove.

If you're wondering why depressed people don't ask for the treatment they need, I can speak from that angle pretty well. I have no doubts I'm depressed in my own mind, but until the school psychologist (who I see regularly but can't diagnose me) reccomended that I might have depression, I thought they would yell at me or make me feel stupid and say why I don't. I'm also afraid of my parents finding out, because they have high expectations for me, I feel like I would disappoint them or make it feel like it's their fault. I also don't want my boyfriend (and best friend) to find out because I feel he would be uncomfortable with the fact that his girlfriend needs "treatment" or has "problems" because he comes from the stereotypical all-american home. Another big factor is that I don't want my family problems to come out in therapy, because I don't want my parents to be accused of abuse, or the story of my grandfather to come out that nobody knows about. I would prefer to keep all these things under wraps and just get the emotional help. So, I guess a lot of the reason I don't seek actual treatment is fear of now being "emotionally unstable".