I can't begin to imagine what it must be like living with a depressive. Frustrating, certainly... and pretty damn depressing I'd have thought. :))

No, seriously, I'm not taking the piss... as a depressive I know my mood swings can be quite extreme and very rapid. For those around me, this means never really knowing which Usky will appear at any given time.

I've been fairly irascible for years; being grumpy or quick tempered doesn't make you a depressive of course, but it is something most people can associate with. I've always had the ability to go up like a sky-rocket when something upset me, but whereas my temper shot heavenwards to be followed almost immediately by a cooling off to a very low simmer when I was well, things are rather different nowadays. My mood swings may last a few hours, a few days, weeks...

If you live with a depressed person, or know someone who is suffering from depression, exercising extreme patience will be greatly appreciated. The temptation to turn to a depressive and say "For God's sake, pull yourself together! Snap out of it and stop wallowing" or something similar is huge... I know, I've been there too. But if you want the truth, those are the last things a depressive wants or needs to hear.

If getting over depression was as easy as simply "snapping out of it" there wouldn't be any depressed people. Believe me when I tell you, we don't want to feel the way we do. A chemical imbalance in the brain forces this on us and there is nothing we can do to "pull ourselves together."

On a good day I appear completely normal. On a bad day I'm a very different person.

They say one in four of the population will suffer a mental illness in their lifetime. Thankfully, most make a full recovery. And don't be fooled; depression is a mental illness just like breaking a limb is a physical illness.

Suffering from depression doesn't make me a "nutter" though and the stigma that surrounds mental illness is something else that's unhelpful. You can think what you like, but please don't name call, titter behind your hand or tip the wink to your mates when a sufferer passes you on the street. We're still human and deserve to be treated with dignity. Being mentally ill shouldn't take that away from us.

I see depression from a depressed person's point of view. I know how I feel and I know how others like me feel. I'd really like to hear from anyone out there who has to cope with a depressive in their life; it would be good for me (and others no doubt) to try and see things from both sides of the fence. Any offers?