If you have ever said "Snap out of it" to someone suffering from depression. If you have dismissed a person's mood swings as "bad attitude". If you have judged someone for being too fat or too thin, not knowing the demons they battle with every single day. If you have ever said "Oh he or she is so rich/successful/beautiful... what does he/she have to be depressed about?" If you have ever told someone who was feeling low to "just get over it" or deemed suicide to be a "cowardly" act. If you have ever called someone "clingy and needy" because they needed you just a little more than the usual... If you have snapped at them and asked them to stop being "melodramatic" when their anxieties have gotten the better of them... Then seriously, shut up. Now. Please.

Save your fucking hashtags and posts for things that you actually understand and empathise with. It isn't enough to jump on the bandwagon every time a celebrity commits suicide. It isn't enough to share helpline numbers and repost stories you don't understand in the first place. If you really care, then first educate yourself about depression and other mental illnesses. And for fuck's sake, stop thinking that just because you don't "see" it, it doesn't exist.

It doesn't take broken bones and bloody wounds to qualify as being ill and in need of help. Just as it doesn't take a sad face to signify depression. I have always been told that my smile is my best feature... well, guess what? Yes.... me too. And there are millions of us who are struggling to make it through just one more day. And no, it's not some made up "new age disease" that doesn't really matter. So please... just shut up now. And get on with your lives... and refrain from judging how we live ours.

Depression is real. Depression does kill. And it does so when you are alive. Every single day, in so many different ways. And even though it's not a solution, suicide just makes it all stop.