About the suicide depression thing

[Clodfobble]

I'm going to try to articulate this, and probably fail, so please forgive me if I offend because that's not my intention...

I get the distinct impression that when people (not you, infi) angrily point out that people should have been aware of Suicide Victim's depression, or taken it more seriously, the only thing they are really saying is, "Why can't you see that I, too, am seriously depressed?" They are afraid that eventually it will be them who is mourned after the fact.

The thing is, raising awareness among the non-depressed does nothing. There really isn't a mainstream stigma around depression anymore, except that which the depressed person creates for themselves, because their depression lies to them in that way just like so many others. It doesn't help at all for Happy Joe to be thinking about how serious or prevalent depression is. It probably makes it worse, in fact, because non-depressed people are notorious for offering counterproductive advice to depressed people. The only effective message is going to be from those who have been there before, to those who are there now: "Depression lies. People love you. Here is where to get help." The message has to go inward to the community, not outward.