I know, rd, I too wish they should be somehow forced to walk in our shoes for a month, just ONE month, with full-on anxiety and depression; and that would open up a lot of eyes to the realities of these illnesses. It would bring the ridiculous assumptions, generalization, and over-simplified, unhelpful advice to a screeching halt.

I'm pretty certain the education levels of the people who've shared their "thoughts" with me are pretty basic. Only one was college-educated, but it was a technical college and not a liberal arts degree by any means. Also, them saying things like that to me---when they really did not know me at all---was deeply insulting. As if THIS is what I dreamed of and worked hard for, all of my life, since before college, and through the start of my career. As if anyone would choose to feel like this, for longer than a day.

Really, anyone who thinks like this is no towering intellect.