My family used to live in a five-bedroom, three-bathroom home.
We had a boat, jet skis, five vehicles, a nice trailer. We could drop a few hundred dollars on a shopping trip without a second thought.
It was during this time that I was initially diagnosed with depression.
We now live in a small apartment, driving cars that are on the verge of breaking down. We live paycheck to paycheck.
Amazingly enough, I just went to the counselor this past week and was told that I still have depression.
It’s as if depression is a medical condition that is not influenced by the acquisition of things.
Depression doesn’t give a flying fuck if you have everything.
I can say that not having things like money can create added stress which can exacerbate depression, but having money doesn’t eliminate depression entirely.
Depression is not greed or lack of appreciation for what you have or some first-world privilege.
It’s medical. It’s real and it kills people, and it’s this sort of rhetoric— this, “Why are you depressed? You have everything!”— that causes people to not seek help because they believe they aren’t justified in feeling depressed.
No one has to justify being depressed. No one has to defend themselves over why they feel depressed even though they have everything they could ever want.
Depression, really and truly, does not give a rat’s ass about what you own or the privileges you have. It just doesn’t.
