Depression has undoubtedly become a trend in today’s generation of teenagers. We automatically say we are going to “kill ourselves” in a semi-ironic way at every minor inconvenience. We usually listen to sorrowful music when we are sad to make us feel even worse than we did to begin with (AKA, “simping”). We regularly let our followers on social media know when we are down. The point is that teens are fueling their sadness in their everyday lives, making misery the norm.

The unfortunate part is that not many people take depression seriously because of how quickly teenagers tend to feel sorry for themselves. If everyone is in a constant state of being sad, then why should unhappiness be considered a huge deal?

That being said, I do recognize depression as a serious mental illness. There is a gigantic difference between just going through a tough time in your life and actually having depression.

I believe a lot of it has to do with how we perceive our emotions. It is natural to consider troublesome situations to be the worst thing that has ever happened to us. Outsiders, however, are able to recognize that the predicament is nothing that the affected person cannot get through. Therefore, they may not take the issue seriously, and the sad person will resort to exaggerating their despair as depression.
Alas, there is no foolproof way to truly tell who has the mental illness and who does not. We could just say that those who have not been to a psychiatrist to be diagnosed do not have depression, but even that does not definitively rule out who is not depressed. Many teens are unable to seek help, whether it be due to their parent’s financial issues or their parent’s non-acceptance of depression. This then leads to self-diagnosing, which, again, is not a surefire way to tell.

All in all, I think that people should assess themselves and try to not automatically say that they are depressed. By all means, cry and talk about problems that may be bugging you, but bear in mind that there are people out there who actually do struggle with this mental illness.