Some of the people who tell me about their depression say their GP diagnosed them and prescribed antidepressants for it. They frequently say the antidepressants worked immediately (that makes me skeptical) and that they don't see a therapist. When they tell me about the symptoms of their depression, it sounds like they're experiencing normal stress, which gets pathologized. It's stuff like stress from school or arguing with parents or feeling a little less happy than they normally do. Sometimes they're grieving over the loss of a family member. Sometimes they're just dissatisfied. A few of them have tried to tell me that they now know what it's like to be me.

It makes me want to scream, "No, you don't know what it's like! That's not depression; that's normal human emotion! I'd kill to have emotions like that. Why are you on meds for that? Go to a freaking therapist!"

I know there are people who have no idea what it's like to be mentally ill who say the same kind of thing. Even when everything else in my life was great, people would tell me that my severe depression was "just stress." They'd say, "It's normal to get sad! Everyone gets sad!"

I guess I'm saying that I have difficulty taking a lot of people seriously when they tell me about their depression. I have difficulty sympathizing, because they usually have pretty good reasons for feeling sad and I've never been able to think of any possible causes for any of my depressive episodes. It makes me feel like a jerk.

Does anyone else have the same issue?