I’ve been depressed. I know what it feels like. And it sure as heck is not what my friends are portraying it as.
Let me give some examples.
One of them told me she is bipolar. I had never seen any symptoms to indicate so. She went to a psychologist and he told her she was not bipolar but “sad for a teenager”. My friend returned and the next day tells us with a grin splitting her face “I’m depressed and I need medication!” which gave the impression that she was almost proud of it. She keeps bringing her depression up, clearly holding in smiles each time, which makes me think she’s just looking for attention and sympathy. She also randomly informs us once in a while that “I’m feeling anxious again” and twists her face into weird looks of pain. Long and short of it is, I’m severely tempted to slap her because it looks like she just wants to buy into today’s culture of everyone saying they’re depressed when the smallest amount of sadness hits them.
(Disclaimer: it’s not that I don’t acknowledge mental illness; it’s that nowadays people seem to want to be mentally ill, as though that gives them some higher ground or something.)
Another acquaintance attempted suicide, overdosing on sleeping pills. Her parents found her and rushed her to the hospital to get her stomach pumped. The issue is I don’t really believe her, because no one seemed to acknowledge it, and she keeps flippantly bringing it up, like it was something cool she did. She also refused to let any of us come to meet her in the days she was out of school, and she isn’t going to any therapy, which makes me wonder as to whether anything actually happened or if she too is seeking attention.
Am I being irrational?