How should I deal with a friend faking depression?

Answer 1

A more detailed description of what one means by faking depression would be required to properly answer this. I can only assume that you mean this person is mimicking the symptoms of depression. Symptoms of depression are isolating oneself from friends and activities that used to enjoy and feeling generally pessimistic about things in their life. There is much more to depression of course and different types. Unless you are a doctor or psychiatrist there really is no way to know if a person is faking depression. One should ALWAYS TAKE any psychiatric symptom seriously even if believed to be false.Notify the person's loved ones, or teacher. If the person is, in fact, "faking" the symptoms of depression they will learn that exhibiting psychiatric symptoms in order to obtain attention is not a way to seek the help they clearly need. Remember that if a person appears to be faking something as serious as depression they could be suffering from another psychiatric disorder.