A few days ago I had a conversation with my 2 teens- 14 & 16- about my mental state and tried explaining this to them. I've been having a lot of anxiety and started with that and they both got it.

I told them it's like the sick feeling of dread you get when you did something really, really bad and you know you're going to have to deal with it. If you try to hide it- you're gonna get busted and if you confess, you imagine taht you're in big trouble. It's that same feeling of fear and dread and it doesn't go away and the worst part is, with anxiety- you didn't do anything wrong. They both understood this right away.

When I tried to describe depression, it was so much harder. I couldn't come up with desriptions for the feelings I have. So I tried to explain the deep sadness that is just there no matter how hard I try to think of positive things or try to be rational. The crying and not knowing why and the feeling that you don't deserve to be loved.... I didn't have any good analogies to use. My daughter uderstood the crying bit. As a 16 year old girl, she's had to deal with hormone changes over the past couple years. My son, although very concerned and wanting to understand, told me that he has absolutely no concept of what I was describing. I told him I was glad he didn't.

What my son did understand is that I've had no control over it. I told him that it is and illness that I have to fight with treatment and there is no way for me to just think my way out of it no matter how hard I try. His response was, "Of course. That would be like me trying to think my way out of an athsma attack. It doesn't work."