My friend keeps joking about depression. How do I tell them I have it and to please stop?

It feels like there are two main issues here. First, for whatever reason, your friend may have a certain lack of sensitivity to the struggle that is depression. It also sounds like you don’t feel seen by your friend. Both can be painful. I think you can address both by sharing your own experience with depression with your friend.

What would it be like to tell your friend that you live with depression and what that’s like for you? And what questions might you ask your friend about what they know (or don’t know) about depression? Maybe they have their own fears about it and use humor as a way of dealing with that fear.

Making it an inquiry and conversation and sharing with them your own experience and how what they say affects you, might be a great way to start.

Aimee Falchuk