So there was this boy in my church and he saw me drawing. Me, I love drawing and this boy asked me what I was drawing so I told him that it was a dress and showed it to him.

He liked my drawing and then this boy was like "Oh, that's nice. I didn't know you liked drawing."

And of course I said, "Yeah. It helps with my depression and anxiety problems." Very, very casually. It honestly didn't affect me when I told him this because well this boy is really nice and we're actually friends so I felt comfortable around him.

Anyways, when I said that, all of a sudden the boy gets quiet for a moment and I could feel the air between us change into an awkward, what-do-I-do type of feeling. It wasn't bad at all to be honest; it was just awkward. After a moment, he was like, "Oh. I didn't know you had those problems. What are you disturbed about?" And from then on we had a little conversation.

I'm going to be honest with you, I really liked that conversation. It really made me feel happy that I could talk about my depression and anxiety problems even if it was only just a little. And it really made me happy that the boy didn't judge me because of my problems. It was awkward at first but that was just because the boy was shocked because at church I'm usually very quiet and happy and/or grumpy. He didn't really expect that from me.

It's also different for me when talking about depression in real life and on the internet because when you're on the internet or social media, people are just saying what you want to hear; they just sugarcoat words to make you "feel better" Not only that but they're also just typing words onto a screen. There really isn't any emotion to it... On the internet you don't actually know if the person had been through what you've been through or if they honestly care or if they even wanna talk to you in the first place!

But in person, talking about this kind of thing, you get to see how the person reacts and if they mean it or not.

So it was really nice that I got to talked to this boy about my depression VERY casually with him. He actually didn't mind and was curious about it. He wasn't curious in a oh-I-just-want-to-help-you way but in a what's-it-like? way and I liked that.