I agree with much of what has been said here.

I've been trying to look at it from other people's points of view (I've been having good days recently yay), and I think it must be hard to cope when a friend or a member of your family is always sad, and I think it probably takes a conscious "want" for an outsider to understand that we don't do this on purpose, we don't want it, and we are trying to fight it, but we can't just snap out of it.

The good part is, in my experience, the people that care the most about me (my best friends, my boyfriend and my immediate family) have either made the effort, done some research and figured it out. This has taken about four years, but I think I'm lucky this way. I have been in situations with people who "just don't get it" and it's horrible. I feel for all of you that find this a problem, and if this is fairly new to them, don't give up on them yet.