My parents frustrate me... (+ other rant)

They don't really care about my depression. They just shrug it off like it's nothing, I don't need their help or support, I just want acknowledgement, I just want them to understand that sometimes my depression makes me feel horrible, and it's not something I can just 'shake off' or whatever.

I've lost count of how many times I've told them not to compare me to other people, I don't care how successful other people are in life. I don't want to compete with anybody. I'm doing well myself, I am not saying I'm special, all I'm saying is every individual is different. Apples and oranges or whatever.

I would feel SOOOO much better if my parents could just sit down and talk to me. Is that too much to ask? I feel like all my attempts at slowly educating my parents about my depression are futile.

This is another thing entirely, but I have a friend who is very close to me. I have helped him numerous times, I've always been there for him. I'm the friend he can call at 2 am in the morning just to rant for an hour, and I never let him down. However he ignores all my advice about getting help for his health issues, instead he listens to his brother, because he chooses to listen to a sibling over a friend. My brother says this, my brother says that. It's frustrating.

End of rant.

Have you ever told your friend that you don't want to be his therapist? Or asked why ask, if he's not interested in your advice? To toss you a bone, so to speak? Why disturb your sleep, leave you feeling unacknowledged or dismissed?

I don't truly know what to say about parents that aren't in touch with depression. about that?

That's the opposite of our family. Our son does not want to talk about his depression and anxiety. We offer him help and reassure him that we are there to listen. We provide him with counseling that he often skips out on. It is a struggle. We wish he wanted our help or at least someone to talk about his problems with.

I'm happy to talk to him when he's depressed, but I can only do so much. I've told him that he might have some issues, but apparently his brother says he is fine, and that's good enough for him.

I'm sorry to hear that your son won't talk to you, I wish I had that opportunity.

My parents do not care about my mental health very much, they don't really believe in 'depression'. All I want is acknowledgement. All I want is for them to hear me out, I've been trying to explain to them what my mental state is like and they don't want to hear it at all.

Do you think the problem is that they don't care about you or that they have a fundamental misunderstanding of what you're going through?

It might be that they just don't want to believe it. It is all too real unfortunately. It is a great weight on our son and his outlook. We keep trying, I think we owe him that. I expect we'll break through one of these days. The resistance either way isn't helpful. I don't think you are asking much and I hope you can convince them to listen, parents can be great allies I think. I hope you can get through to them.

They definitely do care about me, but I think part of the problem is that they don't see any obvious sign of trouble in my childhood, I think that the fact that I'm depressed today doesn't 'add up' to them when they look back at my childhood. I was a very quiet child.

At this point I've given up on them helping me or offering me any kind of support. I don't even want them to understand, I'll take whatever I get, even if they lie to me that they understand, it's fine. I know I sound desperate, but it's so frustrating when I can't even have a decent conversation with them.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother, maybe because my mother would want to know what I'm going through, but apparently not.

Yeah I feel ya. I'm sure if they knew what was going through your head, they would feel way different. Maybe you could write something to them that expresses exactly what you feel? I get the feeling they just don't really understand what you're going through.

That is something I'm thinking about, but I've never written a letter to them before. I guess that should set things right between them and me, but I also fear that it might 'overdo it', in the writing. Thanks.