I can recall several people from my own college experience who sound just like the brother in the article. They seemed happy on the surface but when in an intimate setting, reality came out. The intimate setting for us was our fraternity meetings where brothers would bring up that they were have personal problems. Frequently they would share a lot details. I think it was probably one of the best examples of a community coming together to help people without getting recognition and wasn't all just drinking and partying.

Something I've always wondered though is where this stemmed from. I find it unusual that both children from this one family happened to have problems with depression. Perhaps it's a coincidence but I often times wonder if depression really stems from hardship or if it's something less complicated than that. Many of the people who talked about having mental health issues in our fraternity were VERY well off. In fact, between all the people I've known in my life to struggle with mental health the most common attribute I remember was having two parents that worked despite having the means for one of them to stay home. Perhaps my observations are entirely coincidental but it's always seemed that these people needed more attention than anything else. As a result, just having a place for people to talk openly was immensely valuable. Our university had something called "A Place to Talk" where they were trained to be active listeners and not give advice. It's hard to actively participate in conversation without expressing your opinion but that's what they did. I really think they saved lives and probably money on a regular basis.