Rose, I am so sorry that you have been ignored like that. It disgusts me! I also am fairly "high functioning", and it annoys me when people assume that I don't have a problem. Oftentimes, I'm miserable and I'm not high functioning by my standards. People should be aware that in order to have a psych disorder, you must have either distress or impaired functioning. It seems to me that distress ought to be the focal point, as I'd imagine that serious problems functioning are only bad because they are distressing! To a mental health professional, however, it is easier to see that someone who set his bed on fire is sick than it is to pick up on subtler but equally serious presentations of psychiatric disease.

Perhaps you should join a depression support group, like the ones offered by NAMI. If you work, ask a co-worker out for lunch. Loneliness can really, really contribute to depression (and is a nasty enough beast in its own right). It's hard, I know. Trust me, I really know. You need to try, though. If you had close friends near you, you might gain more than just a person to drive you to the hospital.