Explaining depression and anxiety to those without it is not necessarily a milestone toward your recovery. But maybe it's important to you. Maybe you want your parent, sibling, a best friend, or someone close to you to understand a little better. You may find it beneficial.

Depression is all about your ability to cope with stress. Here's a drawing of something I feel describes depression perfectly. In a nutshell, the pictures says depression is not about being sad all the time. It's about how a little bit of sadness or stress can be overwhelming, while normal people can cope much more easily and not be so affected by so little stress.

Anxiety. It's mind sabotage. You know how sometimes you think about breathing - how amazing it is that we know how to breathe without thinking about it - and suddenly you need to think about it. That's totally mind sabotage (I'ma trademark that term). Anyway, half of anxiety is mind sabotage. For example, if you have anxiety and you sweat when you're nervous, you might start sweating more when you realize you're sweating. And then you sweat more because you're sweating more and then even more... It's a vicious cycle that makes you overly conscious of your physical sense of comfort. Anxiety is mind sabotage out of control. The mental sense of anxiety is kind of like... feeling like the "mother" of your future. You want the future, your "child," to be the best that it can be. If your child is going to their first day of school, would you expect a mother not to worry a little excessively? What if your child is bullied? What if the material is too hard for your child? What if he doesn't make any friends? You can't exactly tell a mother not to worry. It just happens. In a similar way, those with anxiety need to learn to cope with the future's unpredictability and mutability. You can't just tell someone, "Don't worry." There's much more to it.