Unfortunately, this is a negative stereotype, and I think many people confuse sadness for depression etc. I would often hear things like, "well, I was depressed and I just told myself to get over it and I did" which implies that I'm lazy. What they fail to realize is more than likely they were sad (not depressed), which is an emotion like happiness. You're sad.. you'll get over it. That is not necessarily the case with major depression or any other mental illness. They assume to know what mental illness is or depression is because they confuse being sad with being depressed/mental illness.



1. You are NOT abusing the system!!
2. I think this is the way society is trending unfortunately. While many of us appear normal on the outside were less than normal mentally. I do not discuss my issues anymore with people for reasons that I described above. I'm already hard enough on myself, and don't need people making me feel worse. It's unfortunate, because appearances are deceiving. I had a friend, he was a profession musician with a few hit songs in the 70's, and to look / talk to him you'd think his life was great, but he struggled with depression. This guy who looked great, seemed to have it all ended up taking his life because he was depressed.
3. There are people who do abuse the system. The moment they get approved for ssdi they then stop seeing their doctors, stop therapy, stop taking meds.