Let me take you through the life of someone you always question,
If only you knew that he was suffering from high-functioning depression;
He knows it when you call him behind his back cynical,
If only you knew that his depressed mood was clinical;
When he declines your invitations, you call him asocial as fuck,
If only you knew that he feels no pleasure because he is stuck;
When you look at his lifeless eyes crying for help in stillness,
If only you knew that the fatigue was a symptom of his illness;
You laugh at him and always call him lazy, or lacking the drive,
If only you knew that he tries to summon the energy to survive;
When he goes around laughing making jokes about himself,
If only you knew his worthlessness is trying to lower his self;
No, he doesn’t roll up into a ball, laying for days on his bed,
If only you knew that thoughts of death still riddle his head;
After a few years like this you get used to living with this condition,
If only you knew that irrational guilt still haunts him like an apparition;
Since he is functioning you won’t look into your DSM to diagnose,
“Oh, he is just a little sad, it’s fine!”, but then again, who knows?
Yes it exists. When you have depressed mood for years, eventually you get up at start functioning, sure that might be a bit lower than your actual potential, but that is the illness not you! So next time you see someone who might be going through this, instead of dismissing their experience, maybe just wave and say hi. :)