My friends, family or colleagues don't think depression is a real illness. How can I educate them?

Depression, like any other mental illness, is a chemical imbalance inside your brain. It is a completely biological phenomenon, just like diabetes. Try explaining to them that you have a chronic illness just like diabetes, and you wouldn't tell a diabetic person that their illness is not real.

Being in depression is a cry for help that should never be ignored. It is a warning that something is terribly wrong. depression can lead to feelings of despair and hopelessness

The best method of educating people on an illness as serious as depression is showing them studies done on the matter. Hundreds of millions of people suffer from depression, some people just don't understand what it's like so they need their eyes opened about it. Knowledge is power more so with a subject like mental health and disorders.

By showing them that depression is a real situation that has taken too many lives and that we need a healthy society that will help people so depression won't exist.

Encourage them to attend a therapy group to better understand it or give them resources on depression. Emphasize the intensity of your depression symptoms to them (if you're comfortable with it) and try to explain that it goes beyond the average everyday sadness. Point out that there is SCIENTIFIC evidence that depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain, which is no different than having a disease caused by a hormone imbalance or something like that. If you said you had diabetes people wouldn't roll their eyes and tell you to "just make some insulin." They'll tell you to be conscious of your diet and to take your medication when necessary. A mental illness is no different, it is a chemical imbalance in the brain that is often successfully treated with medication, just like other illness are often treated with medication. Some people will always be ignorant and not believe in mental illness, and that's out of your control, but a lot of people can turn around once they've been informed.

There are lots of ways. You can talk to them about your own experience; you can direct them toward online resources such as NAMI, DBSA, and many more; you can show them books or articles that explain about depression; you can show them the depression help guide we have here on the site; if you're comfortable, you could even have your loved one come with you to one of your doctor/therapist appointments to have a conversation.

depression is a illness but because there are no band-aids nothing that is visible they dont see it but maybe if you have a lunch room you could find some pamplets in there so they can read them but do remember some will stay narrow minded

I'm sorry that your friends and family do not believe that depression is a real illness. Perhaps you could get some information from your doctor that they could read and/or search reputable sites on the internet and print information for them to read.

Just because someone doesn't experience it(yet) doesn't mean that at some point they won't change their mind. In my experience I had few people come back to me and say that it actually is real, when before they were wrong. And others wouldn't openly agree but say and feel very alike me many years ago. So don't fret, just because someone isn't ill, doesn't mean it is not possible or not real. Many people experience it and will agree with you at any time.

Try to help them by providing some samples suggestions from doctors. Tell them what can be consequences of being in depression. Educate them so that can understand how can depression is a very tough illness to deal with