In this unit, we studied mental health. We looked at the negative stigma around mental health and how perceptions have changed since mental health was first recognized as an illness. Perceptions have changed a lot in the past hundred years and so have medications/treatments. The mental illness I studied was depression. I chose depression because I think it is something that effects a lot of people without anybody realizing they are struggling. You do not have to come across as sad to be depressed and I found that fact very interesting. A human being is born with the depressant gene although it is most common the human does not show signs of depression until the first stages of puberty. This project started by our class reading "All the Bright Places", which is a story about two depressed teenagers who fall in love but want to kill themselves. I found this story very eye opening and realistic. It was my favorite story we had read as a class. We then made a case report researching our specific mental illness so, my case report was on depression. We made an art therapy lesson specific to your individual mental illness. My art therapy lesson was line art because it was showing our depressed "patients" how all your feelings intertwine with one and other.
I have learned a lot throughout this project. I think I have learned more in this unit then in any other unit. I found it vey interesting, relatable and useful. I learned the chemistry behind depression, the negative stigma around depression, how you should go about dealing with someone with depression, and so much more. I learned that one person in this world kills themselves every forty seconds and that really struck a cord with me. So much of this project was so eye opening to me. I learned that depression is genetic so, you can never fault somebody for being depressed. The most surprising thing I learned is you can be totally happy while being depressed. Often times depression is just wondering why the victim feels so discontent with their life when everything is okay.
At exhibition, I gave art therapy lessons to "depressed" people. My patients did line art. My partner and I chose for our art therapy lesson to be line art because, we wanted to show how your feelings all intertwine. Often times, depressed people feel so overwhelmed with emotions they don't even know where to start. By doing line art, it showed the clear connections between two things that would not necessarily seem like they should be connected.