Protest Poster

Depression is a mental illness growing exponentially, however the world is still ignorant on the subject.  There are still many unknowns that revolve around this disease.  This scares people and leads to judgments.  I have to admit I used to be one of these people.  I thought depression was just something made up.  You can just choose to be happy.  However, depression is not this simple.  After living with someone close to me suffer from depression, I gained a new perspective on this invisible disease.   It is a silent epidemic that is a serious problem.  It is not just something people can snap out of.  The symptoms can be grueling and there is no one set cure.  Many do not realize the severity of this issue.  There is a stereotype that follows depression; they are sad people who just need to get over their problems.  However, like Chimamanda Adichie said stereotypes are a problem not because they are untrue, but because they are incomplete.  They make one story the only story.  So many are uneducated on the subject of depression; all they know is the stereotype.  This leads to judgments which only make the victims more isolated and fall deeper and deeper into their depression.  It is our responsibility to educate ourselves in this disease before we point fingers or judge others.  After researching this issue further in the public domain, there are many posters that exist.  Many display sad, lonely people surrounded by words like agony, misery and worthless.  One poster in particular helped to inspire my poster.  Unicef advertised a poster with a little girl blindfolded by depression with a knife to a teddy bear (Unicef Poster link).  While looking at these posters I kept seeing this common theme.  They presented the victim.  This is useful; people need to be exposed to this.  However, I think the problem runs deeper then just these victims.  So many in this world are ignorant on this issue and are quick to judge.  We need to find a cure for depression, however we need to stop this judging that is only making this epidemic worse.  My poster reflects not only the victims of depression blinded to happiness, but those blinded by their judgments to the severity of this problem.  After work shopping my poster on facebook, I was grateful for the comments that helped edit my text to be short and concise.