‘“The stigma surrounding depression makes people feel like they can’t talk about it openly—or at all,” says Eva. “And in turn, those people are not getting the help they need.” But in the end, school officials blocked the issue, citing their fear that the stories would provoke bullying or trigger recurrences in recovered students. Eva and Madeline were sympathetic to their viewpoint, but also believed that this reluctance to support a frank discussion about depression teaches teens that they should be ashamed of an illness they cannot control. Fired up, they wrote an essay about it and sent it off to big-time newspapers. To their surprise, The New York Times agreed to publish their article as an op-ed, giving them a forum for their perspective on their school’s decision—but not an opportunity to share the personal stories they had worked so hard to gather. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Madeline and Eva, who enlisted another friend—Caroline Phillips, a 17-year-old fellow editor—to help. Together, the girls chose classmates (or former classmates) whose personal struggles with depression show the disease for what it really is: difficult, diverse, and—most important—treatable. Here are their very powerful and incredibly brave stories.’
Source: Huffington Post
