It’s not difficult to understand what it’s like to have a migraine if you’ve had one before. The symptoms–throbbing pain in the head and behind the ears, nausea, etc.–can be described but not understood until you are the one laying in bed with the worst headache you’ve ever had.

It’s not so easy to describe severe depression. For some people, it is difficult to understand that depression isn’t just a “mood.”

More importantly, up to one-half of individuals with severe depression are receiving no treatment.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, between 20 and 25 percent of adults suffer from major depression at some point during their lifetime. Approximately 20 percent of all teens also suffer from clinical depression, and around two-thirds of that number go untreated.

Unlike other diseases, depression often requires the patient to do the heavy lifting. While pills or procedures may be able to fix a migraine, it takes a lot more than wanting to get better for somebody to walk into a doctor’s office and admit to having depression.

Research and experience suggests that the majority of people hold a negative perception toward mental illnesses. Growing up, kids describe others as “weird” or “crazy” and many times this habit is carried into adulthood. Newscasters will highlight perpetrators of violent, erratic actions as “mentally ill”  without expanding on the background of their condition.

These negative stigmas can often lead to a social distancing for those with mental illnesses. Feeling that their condition leads to fear or misunderstanding, many will stay silent or isolate themselves.

The stigma doesn’t just worsen outcomes on a personal level, but also complicates the care and resources available to those with mental illnesses. If people stay silent out of fear, many friends, parents and teachers will be completely unaware of their condition until it has worsened to an extreme level.

The truth is, people who suffer are not alone. But until we are able to create an environment in which people feel comfortable to talk about their mental illnesses, many people will not seek help. Doctors can’t give medical attention to patients unless they are aware of the condition that needs to be treated. People with depression should not be afraid to get help.

It’s okay to be depressed, but it’s nothing to be ashamed about.