“Are You Sure You Aren’t Just Lazy?”

No, I’m truly depressed, thank you very much

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It can be outspoken or implied, asked with a smug smirk or condescending face. It can come from genuine naivety or a place of sneakiness. Still, the question is always there, and, if you’ve ever experienced depression and found yourself telling someone else about it, you know what I’m talking about.

This question, which is something along the lines of “Are you sure you aren’t just lazy?” causes more than embarrassment and shame; it also causes confusion and blurs the lines between mental illness, specifically depression, and laziness.

Although this doesn’t help anyone, because of certain common manifestations of the two conditions, it’s easy for both the person concerned and those close to them to mistake one for the other.

Lydia Antonatos, author of this piece published on , says both depression and laziness can affect energy levels, motivation, and productivity.

People often confuse depression with laziness, yet they are two distinct issues. Laziness happens when someone chooses not to do something, even though they’re able to. In contrast, people with depression might seem lazy because they lack motivation and energy, but this is due to the underlying symptoms of the disorder. Unlike…