Sadness and depression aren’t just labels you can put on someone like a gift tag. They are a part of someone’s personality, they are a part of what makes them who they are, whether they like it or not. It isn’t a word you use to describe people who may be feeling blue one day or who have dropped their ice cream cones. No, that’s just temporary, fleeting moments of sadness or grief. Depression is so much more than that. Imagine your favorite huge, fluffy sweater (I know everyone has one, don’t kid yourself), now imagine never being able to take it off. In any weather, or condition you are stuck in that over-sized sweater. You can’t escape it, and very quickly you start feeling suffocated. The sweater feels so tight even though you know it’s not, it feels like you should be able to just slip it off right over your head, but you can’t. You’re stuck with that sweater, and nobody seems to understand. People tell you to ‘just take it off,’ but you know better. Their words start to have a numb affect; you become immune to what they’re saying and learn to tune them out, because you know that their efforts and words are fruitless. But the worst part is, you start to embrace your sweater, learning to curl up into it and greet it as an old friend even though it has caused you so many problems with yourself and others. You hide behind all of the big folds, peeking out now and then, but never fully coming out of it once you’ve learned that staying inside your sweater isn’t so bad after all. You change yourself to fit the sweater and all of its conditions; not going outside or out somewhere, not talking to people who don’t like the sweater. But then, you feel that suffocating feeling again. You know that you need to take the sweater off, but you just can’t bring yourself to do it, because there’s only one way to take that sweater off. You struggle with it, pulling pieces of your skin apart in the attempt to rip it off you; embracing and not caring about the pain and blood it brings you. You lose hope, because you know that the sweater will always win and you will be stuck inside it forever. And the worst part? You see other people in heavy, dark sweaters just like you. You see them struggling the same as you, but you know that if you reach out you’ll just be greeting empty air where a hand should be. They act as if they’re sweaters aren’t a problem, that they can take them off anytime, but you know better. Eventually, you know what you have to do. Your sweater has taken the energy out of you until you feel like you’ve gone past the point of recharging. You know that people won’t miss you, because they don’t like your sweater so therefore they must not like you. In your last attempt to take your sweater off you finally succeed; you pull at it with such power and will, that it comes flying off. You feel air and warmth on your skin, your bare skin, and you know you’ve gained a victory. You smile as you close your eyes and drift away from the world, knowing all the while that the sweater with you had fought so hard to take off was back there and that it wasn’t that hard to take off in the end, it just required more will power.