Thanks for your response, rdgrad 15. I agree---people are not very educated about the different forms of depression, and they rush to commonly accepted generalizations about it all.

It's laughable, really, when someone who has never personally experienced a certain illness seems to know "everything" about it.

At least the conversations have started. I believe that with education efforts on the increase (at least here in Canada), the topic of mental illness will not be such a taboo, fear-inducing subject in the future. Only understanding can reduce both the stigma and the preposterous misconceptions.