:I have come to believe friends and family cannot understand depression unless they have been there themselves. And they usually say stuff to you that makes you feel worse. "you have a good life. You have nothing to be depressed about. Other people have worse problems than you, etc." You know the drill. Here's what bothers me. If you have a physical illness, surgery, heart problem, hospitalization, everyone calls you. They tell you that they are praying for you, its "what can I do to help you. The church is praying for you. We'll bring you food." But when we suffer depression or other mental illness we are already in deep emotional pain, sometimes to the point of crisis. And people say stuff like "you're just weak. If you were a better person you wouldn't be sad," and the all time church people stuff "if you were in God's grace you wouldn't suffer. You must be offending God somehow." People we suffer an illness. Have some understanding. And even biblical heroes suffered hardship and depression yet God loved them dearly. Folks out there need to be educated about mental illness. Sorry, I had to get on my