Depression isn't a choice.

Depression isn't a choice. It's isolating. People don't go to the doctor because they convince themselves it's not needed. Nothing will help the negative thoughts. Unforgiving and relentless what ifs. Why can't I? I can't, why? The thoughts which can convince a person that the world will be better off without them in it.

A well-researched and documented disease of the mind, often invisible to others.

Does this make it less important? Who dictates that society has permission to call someone with depression, weak?

Some days it's good, others it's bad. What about those days when it is so debilitating, one cannot get out of bed.

In some cases, the pain goes away and for others, they make it go away.

For those left behind, it never goes away.

To the man I heard say depression is a joke and suicide is selfish and cowardly. By assuming that someone who has everything has no reason to be sad. Guess what? Depression doesn't discriminate.

I love these words from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul. They've stuck with me for years.

It's about what you say and what you mean. It's about seeing people for who they are and not what they have. Most of all, it's about choosing to use your life to touch someone else's in a way that could never have been achieved otherwise. These choices are what life's about.

If you are suffering, please call Lifeline or Beyond Blue.