# Functional Depression script

## Functional Depression Prompts

This one's about the paradox of "appearing capable" while internally drowning. The contrast between what people see and what's actually happening.

### **1. Define it in your own words: What does "functional depression" mean to you?**

Not the clinical definition—your lived experience. What does it look like to be depressed *and* able to hold down a job, show up, perform tasks? How is it different from what people think depression looks like?

### **2. Walk me through a typical workday when you were functionally depressed.**

Pick a specific job/period. What time did you wake up? How did you get yourself out the door? What was happening in your head while you sat at your desk, talked to coworkers, attended meetings? What did they see vs. what was real?

### **3. What's the cost of being functional when you're depressed?**

Does it burn through more energy than "regular" depression? Do you crash harder at the end of the day? What happens on weekends? Does maintaining the performance make the depression worse, or does the structure help?

### **4. Have you ever "lost" your functional status? What happened?**

Was there a breaking point where you couldn't maintain it anymore? What did that look like? How did people react when the functionality failed?

### **5. Why do people not recognize functional depression as "real" depression?**

What assumptions do people make about you because you can show up and do the work? What do they miss? What have people said to you that reveals they don't get it?

### **6. If you could say one thing to someone who's functionally depressed right now, what would it be?**

What do you wish someone had told you when you were grinding through it? What truth needs to be said?