A/N: So this story is inspired by my own personal experiences with depression. I tried to show what it might be like inside Riley's head if she were to go through depression.

There's a common misconception that depression is about sadness, or feeling sad all the time. As someone who has dealt with depression, I can safely say this isn't accurate. Most people who are depressed will say the same thing.

Sadness is a normal, healthy emotion that we all feel, and need to feel, from time to time. Depression is a mental illness that can encompass a wide variety of symptoms, feelings, and emotions. When I am depressed, there's an overwhelming sense of apathy. I'm not motivated to do anything and care less about things.

When I'm depressed, if I'm not feeling apathetic I'm usually feeling either fear or anger. Depression can make someone highly irritable and frustrated when it's not going away as soon as they'd like. It can also make you anxious when you don't know why you're depressed or when it's going to go away. Sometimes, you can feel disgust at yourself for being depressed (self-loathing).

I hope that by reading this, some of you will be able to relate. Don't be afraid to let me know if you like this story or are able to relate to it in any way.

The sun rays shone through the window. Its heat made Riley squirm in her sheets and cause her forehead to sweat.

It didn't take long for Disgust to run over and take control of the control panel. "Ugh. Gross." She made Riley wipe her forehead and let out a groan.

The other emotions made their way into the control room. Sadness and Joy were still in their pajamas, which didn't surprise Disgust. Even she was having a hard time finding the energy to get dressed, do her hair, and put makeup on. She did it anyway, since at least one of the emotions had to keep their looks together.

Anger and Fear were dressed, at least. However, Anger's white collared shirt was untucked, and it appeared that a button was undone. His eyes appeared to have a little crust underneath them and dark circles around them. Normally, that would weird Disgust out, but now she could care less.

"Let me guess, you didn't sleep well?" Disgust asked.

He shook his head, still keeping his head down. "No."

Fear let out a yawn. "I didn't sleep well either. I don't think any of us did, really." Fear was dressed normally, with his usual red bow tie and sweater vest over a striped blue dress shirt. Like Anger, though, he also had dark circles around his eyes.

Anger started the coffee machine. "Any of you want coffee?"

"Sure," Fear and Disgust said at the same time. Anger was about to ask Joy and Sadness if they wanted any, but both girls were sound asleep on the pink sofa, accompanied by snoring.

Disgust snorted. "Seriously, you two?"

Fear yelped, dropping the mug. It broke into pieces once it hit the floor. The sound woke Joy and Sadness up from their slumber. "Aah, the biology project! No, no, no! We didn't even start it!"

"And we're not going to," said Disgust. "Not right now."

"But-"

"I'm serious, Fear. Riley's not in the mood. I'm not in the mood. None of us are in the mood to do schoolwork right now."

"It's a major project, though. It's worth, like, half Riley's grade!"

Disgust shrugged. "Meh, we'll do it later."

"Disgust, we can't 'do it later'!" Fear said, using air quotes. "We've put it off long enough! We can't afford to do poorly on this project. We're already not doing so swell in this class, and the last thing we want is another lecture from Mr. Hickso-"

Anger rumpled his newspaper and threw it to the floor. "Will you shut up? We're not going to fail the project, for fuck's sake! Would you rather us do it now when we don't care about it and do badly, or wait until we actually are ready to do it, huh?"

Fear, while initially frightened, was not going to let himself be pushed around by Anger. Not this time, and not if Riley's grades were at stake. He glared at Anger and put his hands on his hips. "We've already waited for half a week, Anger! There's not going to be any time left to wait!"

Anger just brushed him off. "Yes, there is. You just wait and see. For now, let the rest of us handle this."

Fear shook his head. "No, no, no! I've let you guys 'handle this' enough! That's why we're in the mess that we're in now." As Fear kept rambling on, Anger took steady, dangerous steps towards the purple Emotion.

He pointed a meaty, red finger at Fear. "You better keep your voice down." His growl was low and even made Disgust take a few steps back.

Fear backed up a few steps, but he still tried not to be intimidated. "N-no, actually, I won't. I'm tired of you people not listening to me. Just because Riley doesn't feel like herself doesn't mean we should let her life fall apart!"

Joy rubbed her eyes and found the energy in herself to speak. "Please don't worry about it, Fear. We'll get to it at some point. I promise."

"That's not helpful, Joy. Good god, what happened to you?" He shook his head at her, like a disapproving father. "Not too long ago, you cared just as much as I did about Riley's academic success."

Joy didn't have an answer for that. She never did.

Fear huffed of exasperation and stomped over to his room. He threw one last scathing look at his co-workers. "I'm going to go back to sleep. Clearly, you all can handle this, right? So I'm not needed."

"Oh, Fear, don't be like tha-"

"No!" Joy flinched at the strength of his voice, her face showing the most emotion he'd seen of her these past weeks. "I'm done with this, Joy! You're all capable of taking care of Riley yourselves."

They weren't, though. And he knew that. He'd given up trying to think otherwise.

The bedroom door knocked. "Riley! Riley?" It was Mom.

"Ugh, why is she here?" Disgust asked.

Anger groaned. "Aargh!" He hopped off the sofa and went over to the controls. Without even asking the other emotions, he took full control of them.

"What?" Riley asked, snappier than she intended.

Mom opened the door just a tiny bit. She peeked her head in. "Honey? Aren't you going to get up soon? It's almost noon!"

"I'm tired."

"You've been tired for the last couple days. Are you sure everything's okay? You know you can talk to me if something's wrong."

Riley rolled her eyes. "Nothing's wrong, Mom. Just, can you just go away?"

Red orbs smacked into the array of green and purple orbs. A sight like that would've terrified Joy in the old days, but these days were different.

"I don't appreciate this attitude, young lady. I'm only trying to hel-"

Anger's head was starting to smolder. His grip on the levers were tightening.

Riley sat up like a lion sitting up to catch its prey. "I don't want your help, Mom! Gosh, can you just leave me alone for once? I don't need you asking me all these stupid questions."

Mom let out a heavy sigh. She placed a hand to her chest, offended. "Okay, fine, I'm not going to force you to talk to me, Riley. When you're ready to talk and be respectful, then I'm here." She closed the door gently.

"Did you have to be so hard on Mom?" Disgust asked.

"Yeah, I did," said Anger. "She was interrupting our sleep all so she could pry into our life!"

"But she did actually seem worried about us," Sadness said, talking for the first time ever that day.

"We don't need her pity or her worry, and we don't need her help! We can handle this on our own!"

Meanwhile, Riley's parents were talking about Riley's weird behavior downstairs.

"I really don't know what the deal is with her," Dad said. "She's not into being a 'monkey' anymore! And she doesn't like it when I try to talk to her."

"I'm honestly worried for her," Mom said. "Just this morning, I asked her what's wrong, and she got all mad at me! She's been lying in that bed all morning, and it's now noon!"

"Hmm, perhaps we should take her to a doctor?"

"I don't know, but I'm starting to consider it. I know she's 15 now, but teens don't act that bad, do they? They still try to get out and socialize, a least a little, right?"

"Right."

"And it's not like her to be like this! She's a bubbly, happy friendly girl! She may be becoming a woman, but she's still been herself for how many years?"

"I know, sweetie, I know. It's concerning me too. It probably wouldn't hurt to have her go see the doctor." He pulled out his phone, ready to make the phone call.

"Yeah, it wouldn't. She might be mad, but she knows we're only concerned for her."

That was all Dad needed. He made the phone call to the family doctor. Even though he knew his daughter wouldn't be pleased with this, he was willing to do anything to get his happy girl back.