
The proceeds provide essential funds for community non-profits and also serve as an excellent lesson in green living and waste management.
#Lighten up how to#
When you're considering how to respond to a person with a serious mental illness, watch this. Lighten Up is a community-focused event with the dual purpose of waste diversion and supporting the local community. Iris may be rhizomatous or bulbous perennials, with narrow leaves and erect stems. Of course, telling a person with depression to lighten up is only one thing to never say. Family: Iridaceae Native to the UK: No Genus. What to Consider When Talking to a Person with a Serious Mental Illness Like Depression So take that person's feelings seriously and treat those feelings with the respect they deserve - just like you would want to be treated.

But the goal is if not to help, at least not to hurt. No one reacts perfectly when someone expresses serious depression. And let's be clear - not getting help for a serious mental illness like depression can actually kill a person. And this message can make a person not seek help for depression. It's very hard for many with depression to express what they're going through and if you're the person they've decided to tell and you discount what they're saying, you're basically telling them not to talk about it. But marginalizing depression and the feelings and expression of depression is not helping. And I believe that none of us wants to push a person with depression in that direction (" Suicide Information and Resources"). It's well worth remembering that people with depression die by suicide every day - every day. Never Tell a Person with Depression to Lighten Up - It Can Harm Them Those feelings are powerful, real and need to be accepted, not minimized (" Stop Minimizing Mental Illness: Worst Things to Say"). Because depression results in genuine feelings. You're discounting that person's genuine feelings of depression. And, of course, after being told this over and over, I certainly didn't want to express my emotions anymore.Īnd this is exactly what happens when you tell someone with depression to "lighten up." What you're doing is saying that person's emotions don't matter and that he or she should just set them aside and act in a different way - a way that you deem more acceptable. I would be silenced, true, but I would also feel exasperated that no one was listening to me and this resulted in me feeling guilty for my own emotions. It was how my father and my brother would silence me after they had been, well, rather mean, usually. When I was young I was told to "lighten up" a lot.


Don't Tell a Person with Depression to Lighten Up So saying "lighten up" to someone is akin to saying "be more cheerful." Ordering people to be happier - no wonder I hate it. This slangy expression transfers reducing a physical weight to a change of mood or attitude. For example, Lighten up, Sam-it'll turn out all right. What Is 'Lightening Up?'Īccording to, "lighten up" means:īecome or cause to become less serious or gloomy, and more cheerful. There is an infinite number of things to say to a person with depression that is appropriate, but telling a person with depression to "lighten up" is not one of them. Take my advice here, and just don't do it. Never tell a person with depression to lighten up.
