Facebook asked me what's on my mind. Here's what I said:

What's on my mind, Facebook asked.  Plenty. Let me tell you about it.

I am sick and tired of people talking about depression when they haven't had it or haven't had repeated serious suicidal episodes. Or who think psych meds are bad. Or that the meds are just some kind of happy pills. Or who think depression can be "cured" with some herbal remedy.

I'm also sick of the little platitudes about how you just need to think positive. Positive thinking is nearly impossible when you are suicidal. All these little slogans just make a severely depressed person feel even worse because they can't just "think" themselves better.  That's like telling a person with diabetes to control their blood sugar by positive thinking. I'm sick of it.

And I'm sick of people explaining away gun violence by saying the perpetrator had "mental health problems." Hey, here's a novel idea:  maybe we should take more care in who can buy guns and how they store them.  But that won't happen because the NRA (read gun manufacturers) owns all our legislators.

I have 50 years of battling severe depression. I think about suicide every day of my life. If you haven't experienced something like that, take care not to say shit that just makes the suicidal person feel worse. Like "You have so much to live for," or "practice an attitude of gratitude, or "just think about so-and-so and what they have overcome, " or say you know how we feel, or advise us to "give it to God. Or tell us to use our "coping skills." Believe me, we've heard it all and tried it all before.

And above all, don't call Crisis Services, because they'll either try to put you in the hospital or just humiliate you. Hospitalization, since the insurance companies now control it, is pretty much worthless. They'll just throw some different meds at you and send you home before they can see if the meds help. Because the insurance companies won't pay for a hospital stay beyond their criteria. And they don't give a rat's ass about your doctor's opinion. There's a perfect example of "death panels."

And that, I told Facebook, is what's on my mind.