this is THE WORST writing advice someone could give

flippantly handling mental illness or romanticizing it? bad.

writing it? not bad.

also, "neurotypical" in this context makes no sense. does this mean an autistic person that doesn't have depression is automatically more qualified to write depression as a ~neurotypical~? you cant lump all these illnesses under one umbrella, yo. (given, autism is a neurological condition and not an illness but yah feel me)

research, research, research! but guess what- youre still not gonna get it 100% percent right. because every one experiences these illnesses differently. even if you have anxiety, someones still gonna be like "uh, thats not how my anxiety is???"

but for the love of crap, expand your horizons. dont box yourself in with only characters that are like you. thats where the lack of diversity comes from, dangit.

handle the subject with good taste, but please, just write it.