I was a normal kid most of the time in childhood, I'd get sad and I'd get over it and I'd be fine nothing too unusual. I also have ADHD, and it was so bad when I went into middle school they put me on medication to control my ADHD. They helped me concentrate but they stripped me of my personality and made me feel uneasy most of the time. Unbeknownst to me, the medication had side effects such as depression and mood swings. I had never felt what depression was until I was 13. The medication they had me on jumpstarted the process. Made me feel like not even getting out of bed or functioning. Made me feel angry one moment and sad the next. It really screwed me up and caused me to act out and do things I wouldn't normally do.. Even after I told my parents I wasn't gonna take those meds anymore (they fought me but I won), the depression side effect never really went away. I think it was something that was lying dormant inside me and the medication finally brought it out.

No I don't take any medication for it. In my personal opinion I don't think pills solve everything and sometimes can make it worse. I feel as though the Doctors made it worse personally because I don't think you're supposed to have suicidal thoughts at 13 from a pill you're being forced to take.

Originally as a kid it was just a feeling of deep deep sadness that I couldn't overcome, sometimes for no reason. I feel like as an adult it has progressed, to the point of feeling totally empty, hopeless, like everything you've done is wrong, like you shouldn't exist anymore, and that the world would be better off without you. Its sad to say but having this as you get older makes it get worse.

I feel like if maybe my parents had listened to me more when I tried to describe how it was making me feel they would've thought twice about forcing me to take it. They dismissed it as "you're just being dramatic and don't wanna take your meds." They only saw black and white, which was my grades were improving so it must help... I don't fault the doctor completely, I just wish the side effects were explained properly before being prescribed to me.

You're not alone. It may seem like everything is terrible and there's no point of return, but you will come out of it. I personally surround myself with friends or family who help me out of my awful funks that I get in. Everyone does something differently to help themselves. Just know that you can overcome it and there's always at least ONE person you can talk to.

Thank you Starscream for this!

Personally, I don’t think they are 2 complete different things, both of which is depression, but the state of depression is different in terms of how mild or bad your depression really is.

There's the idea of "depression" which can mean "to feel very sad", and then there's the "depression" which refers to Major Depressive Disorder, which is a mental illness, and is graded along a scale of mild / moderate /severe. I believe this is what Starscream was getting at.

This is where a lot of confusion comes from, because when someone says they're depressed, some can take that as meaning "I'm feeling very sad right now" so the person tries to cheer them up by telling them to do happy things, etc., when really they mean "My brain doesn't let me be happy" which is what the mental illness is more about.