kvalidir - // Sorry Andy I disagree, the thing you are about an awful lot of things, (including depression), is patronising, as usual it's your way or the highway. //
I guess we can agree to differ about that.
// Btw, it's not a competition you know to prove who has suffered the most, some people just don't bother to shout about it and try to beat others with it like a stick. //
Indeed it's not, but neither is it about making snotty pompous assumptions about people that you don't know except through a website.
I am far from the only regular AB'er with mental health issues, and like them, I mention it in context - which is what I did.
// Being depressed or having depression, however you wish to split hairs ... //
It is not splitting hairs! One of my major gripes about the condition is its misnomer. People think that having Depression is the same as being depressed, which, from your experience, you know is far from the case. If I had my way, it would be called something that resonates in the same way that Cancer does, but we have the name we have.
// ... is NOT an excuse to put other people's lives at risk by drink driving. It does the very many thousands of people suffering from depression a massive dis-service to use that as an excuse for frankly Ant McPartlin doing whatever he fancies and then plating the poor me card. //
I don't think it is an excuse, which is why I am not excusing him but it may be a reason, which is something else entirely. When I was in the hospital I behaved appallingly at times, things which I shudder to remember even now, and I would never excuse that behaviour, but I have explained it, and I do believe there is a big difference between the two.
// I have said before his addiction issues and mental health issues are cause for sympathy, but I do not accept that he chose to drink and drive because he suffers from depression. I find that insulting and ludicrous. //
My point is that there are times when you are not making 'choices', and self-destructive behaviour as absolutely a character trait of someone in the midst of a bad episode, which once again, you will know from your received experience.