We love this message so much from Bringing Change to Mind we wanted all of our readers to have access to it on our website.

Depression is a horrific illness that affects as many as 10% of Americans at any one time. Depression is a brain disease that can cause confusion and distortions in thinking, as well as interference with basic physiologic functions, including: sleep, energy, appetite, motor function and more. It is neither self-inflicted nor a moral failure. Depression interferes with cognition (or thinking), making it impossible for the individual to perceive and accurately interpret the environment with a consequent inability to experience pleasure and anticipate the future. The brain’s failure to undertake accurate self-assessment of risks is intrinsic to Depression, with a disruption in sense of self and loss of the basic evolutionary drive for survival; this leads to dangerous behaviors and even death. Death during Depression is not a “self-inflicted” death (suicide) because the sense of self is gone; it is Death by Depression.