> Constant mood swings can be a good sign that you are suffering from some kind of mental illness. There is a strange stigma attached to the term "mentally ill," and many people think it's the same as being crazy. Actually, though, it's the best term we have to refer to any of a number of conditions that have real physical causes. What's sad is that so many people believe that mental illnesses are somehow the fault of the people suffering from them, which is absurd. Nobody would blame somebody who has a cold or another physical illness, but there is still a stigma with mental illnesses.

Just thought I'd post here that I'm starting to wonder if *I* might be "mentally ill." My mom is concerned that I might have clinical depression since I seem to have a cloud over my head a lot lately. I haven't even noticed this at all, and I often feel happy. But I suppose I could describe my general mood most of the time as being "melancholy" or "pensive." I played laser tag with Mom yesterday and had a blast, but she says that even through that I seemed a little depressed. Like I said, I certainly haven't noticed this. I feel fine.

But on the same token, I'd like to be as objective as possible. I know that when people do contract a mental illness, they first go through denial. So that may be what I'm in now. But I'm still pretty convinced that this isn't real clinical depression. Final exams start tomorrow, and I'm pretty stressed about that. Or should I say, REALLY stressed. But I assume that after they're over, I'll be feeling a lot better.

Does anybody here know how I can tell if this is real clinical depression or just a pensive mood I've been in for the last several weeks? And if it is a medical problem, what would be a good thing for me to do about it? It IS curable, isn't it? Without drugs?

Whatever it is that I'm going through, "mental illness" or not, I don't think it's a very major problem. It's not like I can't feel happy, because I do. Actually, just last week I won a big award on the school debate team and I was really happy about that. :-)

-useless"I expect the Men in White will be coming for me with straitjackets any time now..."ness