Living with chronic depression is a tricky thing. Just to admit you have it can be scary. When you struggle with your own mind and how it thinks day by day it is hard to trust yourself with that  struggle let alone someone else.  If you are brave enough to tell people then you run the risk of having to go through the arguments of how you really just aren’t trusting God enough. Though these people may be well meaning and all, this does not in anyway help. I trust God, I love Him with everything in my being and know that without Him this journey that I am on would be impossible. So I will have to disagree, politely, it can’t be fixed by just trusting God more. Yes, my God is big enough to heal me, but like Paul He also allows “thorns” to be there for His glory. I would not dare to say I am above this.

There are also those that can’t handle it and stay away, maybe they are afraid it is contagious. I am not sure, I haven’t figured that one out yet. I wish I could tell them it is alright, I probably would, and probably do, the same thing at times.

Then there are those that just pretend it really doesn’t exist. I get tired when I am around them because that means that I too am required to play in the disguise if I am to keep their friendship. Maybe I should be reconcidering that company.

Those that accept the depression for what it is are true gems and I am blessed to have them. They don’t judge when you have a bad day and just feel like hiding in the house under the covers in bed. They know that you are not a broken person because you have depression, just a person that sometimes feels broken. They remind you that you are lovable, capable, and savvy. And they love you unconditionally. I am so thankful that there are those that have been willing to look past the stigma to see the person, and at times reach down to help that person up.  It makes me not so scared to say “I have chronic depression”.