I don't say it's so just because I've been diagnosed. It's mainly that people who are SEVERELY depressed as these kids claim, don't openly discuss it like schoolgirls discussing boybands. Plus, I don't take medication, sheer willpower is my tool.
The point was not to criticize the treatment of clinical depression as a disease. If you have been clinically depressed and your doctor has prescribed you medication you should be taking it. The thing I take issue with is the "my depression is more valid than yours" attitude. Maybe people who are clinically depressed don't talk about their condition, I don't know, but clinical depression isn't the only thing people mean when they talk about being depressed. We use the term "depression" in common usage to describe any sustained feeling of sadness, which includes but is not exclusively constituted by clinical depression. People who feel sad are perfectly capable of telling you they feel sad, and them doing so doesn't delegitimize their feelings.
Oh I completely agree with you, but it's just that as I said, people suffering from truly severe clinical depression aren't usually so "open" and discuss it as if it's a normal subject. The whole issue is that these kids I've known personally, are the fakest people I've ever met, putting on a show for everyone, and known for making up stories to get attention. I don't speak for all people with depression, just these kids who I actually have been acquainted with and learned how often they tell lies or do actions for the sake of getting attention. And the issue with them seeking attention, is that these very same kids, I've met and conversed and got to know their parents on a personal level back when I sympathized for these kids and wanted to help out. I went to their parents and their parents all had the same answer, they're not ignoring their children, but instead, their children spend all their time abusing the freedom they're given and once they are in the home environment, treat the parents like shit, and stay on the phones that their parents worked hard to buy them because it was something that the child said would make them happy so they could keep connected with their friends. But in that whole process, they use it as a tool to further ignore and exploit their parents extreme kindness and the freedoms they are given. Then these kids bitch about how their parents don't try to help, and do nothing, when I've met the parent, and watched as they went through an emotional breakdown speaking about their kid and the things they do, and how they feel they've failed as parents. So, in conclusion, it's not that these kids I know suffer from depression, but instead suffer from being unappreciative, uncaring, exploitative shits who claim neglect, when their parents are doing everything they can to help, but the child either resists, or just flat-out ignores them.