End The Stigma Around Depression

Choose a Character

Jimmy's Perspective (Experiencing Depression)

Setting

Jimmy is a 14 year old boy who recently started high school. He lives with his parents and brother named Bob. Jimmy has many classmates among whom is his close friend Steve and a fellow classmate named Albert. Jimmy is a high achieving student with the best grades in his class and high academic expectations from his parents. Jimmy puts the most effort possible into all his assignments while juggling multiple clubs and sports at the same time. Jimmy's workload has become increasingly overwhelming, and the pressure he faces from his environment has only made things worse. As a result, his grades, sleep, and morale have all begun to suffer.

Steve's Perspective (Best Friend)

Setting

Jimmy is a 14 year old boy who recently started high school. He lives with his parents and brother named Bob. Jimmy has many classmates among whom is his close friend Steve and a fellow classmate named Albert. Jimmy is a high achieving student with the best grades in his class and high academic expectations from his parents. Jimmy puts the most effort possible into all his assignments while juggling multiple clubs and sports at the same time. Steve has known Jimmy since the beginning of school and since then they have become best friends. Steve understands how much work Jimmy puts into schoolwork and how busy he can be.

Click next to read Steve’s interactions and experiences with Jimmy.

Bob's Perspective (Brother)

Setting

Jimmy is a 14 year old boy who recently started high school. He lives with his parents and brother named Bob. Jimmy has many classmates among whom is his close friend Steve and a fellow classmate named Albert. Jimmy is a high achieving student with the best grades in his class and high academic expectations from his parents. Jimmy puts the most effort possible into all his assignments while juggling multiple clubs and sports at the same time. Bob is 2 years older than Jimmy. He’s also less of a heavier worker than Jimmy is. The two brothers are very close and Bob understands Jimmy very well. However, they don’t get to spend much time together due to studies but whenever they get the chance, they bond very well.

Click next to read Bob’s interactions and experiences with Jimmy.

Albert's Perspective (Classmate)

Setting

Jimmy is a 14 year old boy who recently started high school. He lives with his parents and brother named Bob. Jimmy has many classmates among whom is his close friend Steve and a fellow classmate named Albert. Jimmy is a high achieving student with the best grades in his class and high academic expectations from his parents. Jimmy puts the most effort possible into all his assignments while juggling multiple clubs and sports at the same time. Albert isn’t necessarily close to Jimmy but most of his class knows Jimmy for how smart and hard-working he is. Jimmy is a very outgoing person and always scores the highest on whatever he submits.

Click next to read Albert’s interactions and experiences with Jimmy.

Jimmy's Perspective (Experiencing Depression)

Scene 1

Jimmy has 3 tests to study for. He also has an upcoming project and lots of homework. Everyone expects him to do perfect on his work so he must do whatever it takes to get his tasks done. He has almost no motivation to do anything and can barely keep up with his assignments.

What can Jimmy do?

Steve's Perspective (Best Friend)

Scene 1

Steve finishes his homework and is feeling bored. So he calls his best friend Jimmy and asks if he wants to go to the soccer field to play soccer. Jimmy says he doesn’t feel like it. Steve knows that Jimmy almost never turns down a request to play soccer. Steve then asks if Jimmy wants to go get ice cream with him. He knows that Jimmy certainly wouldn’t turn down ice cream. Surprisingly, Jimmy denies the offer again. Steve is confused because it’s almost like Jimmy doesn’t enjoy doing things he once enjoyed.

Which option is best for Steve to do at this moment?

Bob's Perspective (Brother)

Scene 1

Jimmy and Bob are getting ready for school on a cold day. As they prepare to leave their home, Bob notices Jimmy didn’t put on his jacket. Bob reminds Jimmy and asks him if he wants to wear it since it’s cold outside. Jimmy replies harshly out of annoyance and frustration. Bob is confused, and doesn’t know how to go about dealing with his brother.

What should Bob do?

Albert's Perspective (Classmate)

Scene 1

Albert just received his test score, he overheard from other people what they scored and assumed he just got the average as usual. He tries taking peaks at other people’s scores just out of curiosity, when he notices Jimmy’s. Jimmy always scored the highest and he saw that Jimmy did just as good as he did. Albert walks over to Jimmy.

What should Albert do/say here?

Jimmy's Perspective (Experiencing Depression)

Scene 2

Despite spending hours studying for his test, Jimmy receives a much lower grade than usual. He becomes very frustrated, feeling that all his hard work has gone to waste. Things get worse when a classmate notices his grade and says, "Maybe you just didn't study hard enough." Jimmy feels angry, misunderstood, and disappointed in himself.

How could Jimmy respond to his declining performance?

Jimmy's Perspective (Experiencing Depression)

Scene 3

Jimmy’s depression has worsened immensely. He’s lost interest in many activities he used to enjoy doing, despite his efforts his grades continue to drop, and he’s distanced himself from people he’s close to like Bob and Steve. Jimmy has begun to have many negative thoughts about himself and is leaning towards self-harm. Jimmy doesn’t know what to do and is very hopeless. He questions whether he should talk to someone or not.

What should Jimmy do?

Steve's Perspective (Best Friend)

Scene 2

Steve just took a pretty hard test. He assumes almost no one scored 100% except Jimmy, simply because he always scores 100%. Steve is shocked when he realizes even Jimmy didn’t score 100% but instead got an overwhelming low score for him of 93%.

What’s an appropriate way for Steve to treat Jimmy in this situation?

Steve's Perspective (Best Friend)

Scene 3

Jimmy opens up to Steve about his depressive feelings and negative thoughts about himself. He says things like saying he’s useless, dumb, or not working hard enough. He hints on thoughts of self-harm and Steve knows his condition is very serious.

What should Steve do for Jimmy?

Bob's Perspective (Brother)

Scene 2

Bob just finished his homework and is feeling bored. At this time, he’ll go play some video games. He has been trying to get Jimmy to play with him, since that’s something they used to always do. Jimmy now always declines saying he’s too tired, or too busy with schoolwork.

How should Bob respond to Jimmy’s withdrawal from their usual activities?

Bob's Perspective (Brother)

Scene 3

One late night, Bob notices that Jimmy is still awake and in his room. Bob realizes that Jimmy’s sleeping habits have worsened a lot. Jimmy tends to stay up to work until late, has trouble falling asleep when he does go to bed, and then complains about being exhausted and tired in the morning. Jimmy’s friend Steve told Bob about Jimmy’s poor performance in school.

What can Bob do to help better his brother’s conditions?

Albert's Perspective (Classmate)

Scene 2

Albert is heading over to lunch after class as regular. He walks over to sit at a table when he overhears a nearby group talking about Jimmy. He overhears them mentioning that Jimmy wasn’t doing his work in class and called him words like lazy and unserious. Albert knows that Jimmy studies a lot and doubts that these claims are true.

What should Albert do in this situation?

Albert's Perspective (Classmate)

Scene 3

During class, Albert notices Jimmy put his head down out of frustration or stress. Albert quietly asks him if he’s okay, and Jimmy mentions that he has so much work to do and doesn’t know if he’s able to get it all done. Albert notices that Jimmy looks overwhelmed, emotionless in the way that he’s dull, and obviously exhausted. Albert really wants to help, but doesn’t want to interfere too much.

What can Albert do to help?

What We Learned

Symptoms of depression include:

Loss of motivation
Loss of enjoyment in activities you once enjoyed
Overall long period of loss of morale
Dropping grades (for students)
Negative self thoughts

Ways you can find assistance:

Journaling/self-reflection
Talking to a close friend
Talking with your parents
Receiving therapy and talking with a mental health professional
Using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

What We Learned

As a friend of someone experiencing depression, you have a lot of power to influence their mental health. Your actions can help or hurt them, so watch what you say and how you interact with them

Depending on the severity of their depression, you can:

Talk to them if they want to
Help them if they sincerely ask for help
Support them; don’t judge
Speak with their parents or siblings so they can be taken proper care of at home

What We Learned

As the sibling of someone facing mental health, you are able to get them real, professional help easily if you do the right thing

The best first step is to talk to them since they spend a lot of their time around you and may have known and lived with you for most of your lives

To make sure they receive the proper support and care they need, you can help by:

Speaking with your parents
Connecting them with a mental health professional/therapist if possible
Offering to be available if they need someone to speak with or spend time with
Listening to them attentively whenever they need to talk to you

In summary, be there for them whenever and if ever they need anything!

What We Learned

Being simply a distant classmate to someone experiencing depression is a unique position to go about helping them from. This is because you're not close enough to the person to comfortably talk to them about their mental health in most cases. But there is always a way to help them

As a student, you should always recognize that your teachers are not only as close as they are to you than everyone else, but they can lead to many more people like the parents of other students

When another student's mental health difficulties are serious enough to be recognized in school, it’s always best to tell a teacher because they can talk to not only the student, but also their parents

What is Depression?

Depression or major depressive disorder is a mental disorder that affects how people feel, think, act, and perceive the world.

Depression is a lot more common than most people think. Nearly three in ten adults have experienced depression at some point in their lives. Although depression can affect anyone at any time, it is more likely to affect women than men, and more likely to affect teens and younger adults than older adults.

There are many causes of depression and in today’s society, a lot of these causes are unknown or forgotten. Depression can be caused by certain events in a person’s life or even negative thoughts about oneself. Major depressive disorder should last for more than 2 weeks with certain systems explained in the next tab.