Depression can be, and often is, a fatal disease. Depression is (IMHO) the AIDS of mental illnesses. Although Depression is not as frequently fatal as AIDS, it works using a similar mechanism: AIDS doesn’t kill you directly–it disables your immune system, and then some other disease kills you while your defenses are down. Similarly, Depression disables your mental immune system. Your self-preservation instinct and your motivation disappear leaving you defenseless against other mental illnesses. Without your mental health immune system, you fall prey to addiction, your bad habits accelerate un-checked, your anxiety spirals out of control, your suicidal ideation becomes concrete.

If you don’t have depression, you have a chance to defend yourself aganst these antagonists (though it’s not easy even when you’re at full strength). But with Depression, these threats which are potentially lethal, become exponentially moreso.

People think that because Depression is all in your head, it can’t physically harm you. But it’s just not true.

Depression is Lethal. Treat it that way.