If you have a loved one with depression, talk about what their depression looks like.

I've suffered from depression on and off for a few years now. One of the main problems I've found is that people can tell when you're sad, but when you have depression, your brain makes you hide that you're sad. People will often think you're completely fine when you aren't.<br><br>My wife made me promise that if I'm ever in a depression spiral, I will come to her and tell her exactly what's making me miserable. Part of being depressed is that you let it build up inside you and don't want to talk to people. You bottle it up and it gets worse, and eventually you're crying in the laundry room at 8am not knowing why.<br><br>What I told her was this: I'm not allowed to hate showering. I'm not allowed to hate brushing and flossing my teeth. I'm not allowed to hate cooking. I'm not allowed to hate running errands. I'm not allowed to hate cleaning the house.<br><br>I promised that if I start to feel like I don't want to do any of those things, I will tell her and she will help me fix it.<br><br>I never would have told her otherwise. I didn't realize how not depressed I was until I was. I didn't tell her until she asked.<br><br>If you have someone in your life that suffers from depression, talk about what their depression looks like. You never know when what you think is them being sad could be a clenched breath spiraling into a full-on panic attack three weeks later.