One of the worst things about it is how invisible it is. You can't look at someone & know if they have #depression or not, partly because it manifests differently for everyone, & ppl who have it can get reeeeallly great at hiding that we do. I'm sharply aware that ppl don't understand the disease & really don't want to hear about it.
I'm in the US. Mental health care here is absolutely abysmal. Right now I'm also sharply aware of the whole cultural attitude towards mental health here in the US. Which is just fucking shameful. For a long time we've thought here that mental health isn't really real, that it's "all in your head", in the sense that we're imagining it, or that being mentally ill is a moral failure.
Turns out mental illness *is* "all in your head", because it's in your BRAIN, which for most of us is in our head.
But it isn't imaginary. & it isn't a moral failure or a failure of *will*.
Believe me, if I could *will* myself out of not having enough serotonin, I fucking would.