You can pick your friends but you can't pick your family!

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By Amy Wallace

Sitting at my Gran’s house last Sunday, as we do on so many Sundays after taking her shopping or dropping various items off, and she comes out with: “Do you know my friend Janice? She’s got depression. Depressed people are SO selfish!”

After that I stopped listening; my whole body filled with rage. I wanted to scream: “Have you not been here for the last four years?!” But I kept my cool and stayed composed, pretending to listen all about how ‘selfish’ Janice was.

If only you knew, Gran. Your three grandchildren and your own daughter all suffer or have suffered from depression and other mental health issues. None of us have talked to my grandmother about this due to her ignorance. Does she know how common depression is?

The next thing I know, she pipes up: “You three are very quiet!” I can’t exactly say what I really feel and tell her that she’s the selfish one for being ignorant, and that I think, like so many others, that Janice is a warrior!