Many people who are not confident will be familiar with depression. In fact, you could very well say that confidence and self-esteem are pretty safe antidotes to depression. – And vice versa.

When we are depressed, we have little faith in our abilities and in our future. In our purpose, our entire existence, our own worth as human beings. Depression in its worst forms may be one of the most debilitating non-lethal illnesses mankind has ever known. In fact, according to the WHO, depression will represent “the highest level of disability ever recorded in any physical or mental disorder in the world” by 2030. *

(And I say “not lethal”. Because in the case of suicidal depression, technically it is not the illness itself that kills you).

And then some ignorant, moralistic idiot starts claiming that it’s about “being lazy,” “recovering,” and “if I can, you can too.” And then involuntarily I grind my teeth and clench my fists.

As if depression were simply a matter of “laziness.” I mean, how dare these people ?!

As if anyone who, surprisingly, knows absolutely nothing about depression is even remotely qualified to have an opinion on it. – Much less write the whole thing as “laziness”.

Seriously, if you ever thought someone suffering from depression was just lazy, that’s your thing. Your point of view is not only objectively wrong and twisted, it is insulting and damaging. The end, period.

In fact, I think it is about time we put the very idea of ​​”laziness” under scrutiny. Because what I’ve found is that when there is someone we might consider “lazy,” there are actually all other kinds of things going on underneath that perceived laziness.

There is fear. Unsafety. Barriers. There is analysis paralysis. These things tend to manifest as procrastination, inactivity, isolation, and defensiveness.

… But they are NOT “lazy”.

And no, not even procrastination. Everything is based on fear; everything is driven by fear.

Insecurity is basically fear. We perceive barriers out of fear. We think too much, we doubt and we enter the paralysis of analysis out of fear. The most primal human feeling (aside from the conglomerate of physical attraction, survival instinct, and dopamine-induced emotions that we call love) is fear.

… NOT “laziness”.

– “Okay, now there are no lazy people anymore? What if the name is there for a reason?”

Well, it’s all here for a myriad of reasons. But the fact that all man-made notions or ideas are here for a reason doesn’t make it true.

Our ancestors used to think that the solar system was geocentric. Yes, wrong answer.

Not that I’m dismissing the idea that someone may be lazy. But psychologists, psychiatrists, physicians, and mental therapists have long built a complete bulletproof framework around the concept of depression. Working with people suffering from depression and low confidence / self esteem.

– Like astronomers have long ago discovered that our solar system is heliocentric.

Depression is real; it is medically proven; and it is not laziness. On the contrary, the only thing that is remotely vague in this context is the ignorance and arrogant attitude of anyone who claims that depressed people are simply being “lazy.”

* Source: https://www.psychology.org.au/publications/inpsych/2012/february/manicavasagar /