Depression and anxiety

[lavei]

Currently on mat leave so watching a lot of day time telly. Also part of another few parenting forums.
Everywhere I turn, I seem to come across people with depressions and anxiety. On every show (rinder, Kyle, Judy etc) everyone has an excuse why they can't do basic things such as pay rent, tidy their home etc because they have depression or anxiety. On another forum I am on, every mother either has mental health issues, depression or anxiety whenever someone disagrees with something they have posted which means you have to be nice to them.
I'm fed up with people using depression and anxiety as an excuse for everything!
There are people out there who genuinely suffer from these thing and trust me I have seen first hand how true depression affects a whole family and I find it really frustrating that people think, oh I'm sad or struggling, must be depression.
Does anyone else feel this way?
This post is not made to disrespect anyone who is suffering, just those who like to jump on the bandwagon

[Blackfellpony]

I notice this a lot here on MN. Almost every other thread references anxiety or depression and it's often used as an excuse or at least it can come across that way.

In real life though can't say I've ever noticed it much!

[welovepancakes]

Depression & anxiety are real illnesses. They affect different people differently. I would be very wary of making any assumptions.

[KathArtic]

Your colleague sounds awful to work with but I can't see anything in your post that proves she does not have depression.

I think thats the problem though - there are no visible signs (usually) so you can't disprove a lazy lay-about who says she's depressed, nor be aware a highflying supermum is depressed and anxious and receiving treatment for the condition.

[Fackorf]

But if in doubt, it's probably better to risk accidentally being nice to a lazy sod than risk being horrible to someone who's genuinely struggling.

[wictional]

... I have both (clinically diagnosed with depression, social and general anxiety) and yes my house is a tip because I genuinely feel like I'm moving through custard most days, even on my medication (which I know I need reviewing, but the thing is that the thought of using the phone makes me panic. I tried online and they messaged me saying that my check up point wasn't for a couple of months and to phone them back. So clearly I was convinced I'd annoyed them and I can't go back for a while).

Don't cry laziness too soon, OP. It is genuinely exhausting to move, sometimes.

[Itisnoteasybeingdifferent]

Do the adding up.

One quarter of the population will have depression at some time in their lives. So that's some 16000000 people. Even spread throughout the year, that is a lot of people. Meanwhile day time TV can only focus on a handfull. And of course they will choose the worse and most goadyfucker types to put on the show... After all it is mostly fodder for the terminaly thick.

So I agree with OP. But take things in a context.