Being stoic might be an admirable quality to some but to others, the pain that can be caused by psychic anguish is unbearable and they can't help but be visibly distressed, to speak of their discomfort, to ask for help or attention.

You can't often tell that someone has cancer just by looking at them and you can't assume how they feel so why would being mentally ill be any different? If a cancer patient 'whined' about how rough they were feeling you'd hardly berate them for doing so. Suffering from mental illness does not equate to *just* being whiny, self-pitying or attention seeking it may look like that's all depressed people are on the outside but those things are just the scabs on a deeper, festering wound. I've suffered from anxiety and depression and I've also suffered 'real' trauma as well and I'd give up everything to not have to deal with depression or anxiety ever again. The reviewer implies that depression and mental illness isn't real pain and that you have to be a war victim to know what real pain is. Pain isn't something that is on a scale, you can't compare pain between people. I'd like to add that there's another review on this website that slams this book for being whiny and that Wurtzel should 'just get over it' because there's people out there who have suffered more and are more entitled to being in emotional pain than she is. Maybe I need to read it again now that I'm older but I do remember loving it several years ago. I think it's honest it's a fair depiction of what a lot of people feel when they're depressed and I thought it was powerfully written. Haha, so many people hate her for being so self-absorbed and whiney and I agree, she is - but I love her for it.

Prozac nation cover