Who knows best?

If you want advice on bringing up children, ask someone who's never had any they'll tell you everything you're doing wrong.

The same applies to depression, if you suffer just ask those who haven't had it, they have all the answers. The best one is still "I haven't had it so I don't know" (IE. "I don't believe you".)

Of course I'm being facetious. People always want to appear knowledgeable, but when we don't know (or believe) something it doesn't mean it doesn't exist or isn't true.

Having an opinion is absolutely acceptable, but with it comes responsibility (a word very popular with "know it alls"). True responsibility includes respect; respect for others opinions, feelings, and realities (which are different than ours).

This entails (on a deeper level) that responsibility requires humility which is (unfortunately) not a very common trait.

The person who has never experienced depression has the responsibility (although rarely the behaviour) to accept their ignorance without dismissing the reality of depression.

Am I whining? In the eyes of many, absolutely.
Do I care? No, because their ignorance is bound to show elsewhere.
Am I better than anyone? Definitely not because I don't know half of what I think I do.
Am I worse than others? Of course not, we all have our failures.