Exordium

I have many people in my life who suffer from mental illnesses, my sister and mother included.  I remember hearing about mental illness for the first time and realizing that a lot more people were affected by it than I first thought.  Almost every one of my friends has some form of mental illness, most commonly depression or an anxiety disorder.  All of these people are between the ages of 15 and 18.  I knew what mental illness was, but I didn't know how it showed or manifested itself in individuals or how to interact with them effectively.  I am still struggling with this on a day to day.  Mental illness is a tricky thing to deal with, because it can be different in everyone and there is no proper way to measure if a person has a chemical imbalance or they have emotional issues behind the illness.  I remember my one close friend asked me why our other friend was depressed.  What was the reason behind it.  I had to explain to her that depression isn't always caused by an experience.  Most times, it's either an experience that manifests itself in a harmful way in the brain or it's a chemical imbalance inside the brain.  There's no real way of measuring what chemical it is or how much the brain has, or why it manifest in this way.  That's just how it is.  She still didn't understand.  Her younger sister told my sister, when she was having a severe downward spiral due to her depression and her medication not working, that "sometimes your mood is what you make it."  She did not mean to suggest that the reason that my sister was feeling down was her own fault, but that is what she did.  There have been other time where friends that are close to me make insensitive comments towards other people about their mental illness, because they don't understand the problem.  A lack of education about mental illness has broken ties and hurt friendships.