It's OK not to be OK: why we need to embrace sadness | Johanna Leggatt

I don't suggest depression isn't a serious health problem or that it shouldn't be professionally treated. But we should distinguish it from ordinary sadness

I have never suffered from a depressive episode. I've never thought of harming myself or been suicidal, nor have I been afflicted with any serious form of anxiety.

Don't get me wrong, my mind, like most people's, is a confounding and mysterious place, but it's also predictable in its mix of competing thoughts, grand ambitions and impractical whims. It doesn't agitate or disturb, and there is no sense of an internal army of despair being held back at the gate.