I'm sure most of you know someone who has been diagnosed with depression. Even if you don't know they have depression, at least one person you know has it. Depression is extremely common, especially in today's society. On the news, you can almost always read or hear about something that happened because of depression. No matter how much society tries to ignore it, it will always be there.

One major reason that people get depressed is because of how they are treated. Whether it's bullying, physical abuse, or verbally bashing someone, all of these things can cause someone to be depressed. If you bully someone, you are hurting them, either physically, mentally, emotionally, or all of the above. When you bully a person, you are lowering their self worth. They start to wonder whether they are valued as a person, and whether they should be alive are not.

If you physically abuse someone, that's not only bullying, that's physically hurting them. After being physically abused, most people become depressed, and they usually start to wonder if staying alive is the best thing for them.

When it comes to verbally bashing someone, people don't often realize that it is just as bad as physically hurting someone. When you tell someone that they don't matter, or that they should kill themselves, they never forget it. Words are like gum, they stick with you wherever you go. If you tell someone to kill themselves, they start to think that you're right, that they really should kill themselves. The next time you consider saying this to someone, don't. They are human beings and they deserve to be treated with respect. Would you like it if someone told you that you don't matter, or that you shouldn't be alive? Your words and actions hurt others, whether you mean it or not.

All of these things are forms of abuse. Do you want to be seen as an abusive person? Do you want to cause someone to feel like they don't matter? I personally know how it feels to be harmed in these ways, and it is one of the worst feelings in the world. Nobody wants to be physically harmed, or told that they shouldn't exist.

We all want to live in a world where we feel safe, and know that someone cares about us. We all want this, but why aren't we trying for it? If we want to feel like we're important, to not be physically abused, bullied, or verbally harmed, why do we do it to other people? They are every bit as important as you are. The next time you get ready to hurt someone, imagine it was someone else saying it to you. Try to remember that words hurt, and any form of abuse causes someone else to suffer. We don't want to be depressed, so we need to stop causing others to feel this way. Be nice to other people, and show them that you value them as a person. Spread love, not hate.