Firstly, let me not mislead you. I won't be listing out misconceptions but I will be discussing depression in Jamaica, based on my own experiences.Is it wrong to say, "I am depressed"? It often feels that way. As young people, what should we really have to be depressed about? I can truthfully say that I have struggled with depression on and off from my childhood but due to the stigma attached to depression, especially in young people, I kept quiet. I suffered in silence until it became unbearable. Then, I opened up. When I started to open up, I was mocked, told I was too weak, and that I wasn't trying hard enough to make my life better. Speaking up, could send you into an even deeper depression.  What happens? We become even more withdrawn or in some cases it manifests itself into anger and we damage relationships and friendships. What about family? Ideally family should be the first source of comfort and understanding but that often isn't the case. Parents

People tend to shy away from the topic of depression as if it's something that isn't experienced or as if it isn't as serious as those who experience it make it out to seem. When you are young you are encouraged to live your life to the fullest and when you are young depression should be the furthest thing from your mind. Well wake up people! Young people are suffering and they are feeling forsaken!       What we need to remember is that people deal with things differently. One individual may find it easy to get over heartbreak while another will suffer daily to heal. One individual may find it easy to get over academic failure while another will struggle daily with overcoming. One individual will find it easy to be alone without social interactions while another will fall apart if they have no one to talk to. Young people are constantly faced in these times with pressures from all over especially that of social media. Some of us can find ourselves feeling inadequate

Everyone is struggling with something or another and we all look for answers in either things or people. When we are vulnerable we sometimes tend to forget to properly analyze the source that we take our advice from. Believe it or not these days there are a lot of people who will take advantage of your vulnerable state and feed you with the worse advice at the time when you need the best of advice to help you move forward. Many people have ended up in far worse situations than they started out in just because they quickly ate up the advice of others. Everyone is different and different strokes work for different folks. Someone may have the best of intentions but that particular advice isn't the best for the person that you are. When we are vulnerable we have to still be very careful about the people who we decide to take life changing advice from because at the end of the day they aren't the ones who have to live with the consequences.