People should not be dismissive of others who assert they have experienced extreme emotional pain, such as depression.
You could just as easily dismiss someone’s claims of debilitating physical pain.
Just because you have not experienced it does not mean it does not exist.
Be careful of judging and condemning others lest you likewise be tested,
Emotional pain is more subjective than physical pain because the cause is not always so obvious.
I am close to a young man who struggles with debilitating emotions due to childhood trauma. He lost both of his parents as a child and was also sexually abused. He has been able to get a good education, hold down a well-paying job, and work on recovery while coping with things like PTSD and severe depression. But it is always a struggle.
I’ve had my share of emotional pain also. To limit your beliefs to only those things you have personally experienced is a kind of mental illness itself. Cynicism is not a healthy mindset.
Now, if you want to question how we as a society treat mental health, I get that.
I have suffered from depression, so I understand that there’s pain that seems non-physical. But there are often physical reasons for these things - hormonal issues, for instance. And I understand that PTSD is real. But our society has turned emotional issues into a fetish & we don’t do first what might solve the problem without medication.
Even folks with physical pain have to get up & deal with their reality each day. Mental illness should not be an excuse for being a responsible person.