Today is, apparently, Blue Day 2008. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but it sure sounds exciting! (End sarcasm.) Well at any rate before I trivialise the occasion completely, here is what their website has to say about the occasion:
October 10 is World Mental Health or Blue Day! A day when the tech and social media community in Australia can work together to raise the awareness of anxiety and depression. Register your support today.
I like to think I do my part (ahem) to raise awareness of anxiety and depression. Infact here is a short (and incomplete) collection of depressing blog posts and/or videos:
- Professional Widow
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- Your Words They Sting
- That’s It. That’s All There Is
- The Sad Clown
- Never Seen Blue
- Hell Hath No Fury
- The Joy Of Shame
- Its My Blog (And I’ll Cry If I Want To)
- A Chill In My Heart
The post titled It’s My Blog (And I’ll Cry If I Want To) seems particularly relevant:
I have been living with this “monster” for too long. The truth is even your friends don’t want to hear that you’re depressed. There’s nothing they can do for you. They don’t know what to say. It just leads to awkward conversation, or the cessation of conversation altogether! I should be over it. I should “get” over it. The truth is I want to know that somebody feels my pain. I want to know that somebody feels bad that I feel bad. Right now it feels as if I am completely superfluous; that, perhaps, if I were to disappear right now into the ether, no one would even notice. Infact some people might even be relieved. And I wonder if that is the reason I want to write this song: that someone might know I was here, that I hurt. Because I don’t want to believe that nobody cares.
But, to my mind, nothing illuminates depression quite like the blues. Indeed, one song in particular. It is called “Trouble In Mind.” I imagine many people have recorded it over the years though the version I am most familiar with is by Nina Simone.
Trouble in mind I’m blue
But I won’t be blue always
‘Cause the suns gonna shine
On my backdoor someday
I’m gonna lay my head
On some lonesome railroad line
Let the 2:19 train ease my troubled mind
I don’t mean to belittle the efforts of the initiative. It is just that my mind is struggling to understand the relationship between promoting awareness and improving the quality of people’s lives. Letting people know I was depressed didn’t have any obvious benefit to the state itself. Certainly (in my experience) it didn’t lead to any further dialogue with anyone. I’m wondering what thousands of blog posts might achieve that couldn’t just as easily be achieved by handing out bumper stickers that read, “DEPRESSION HAPPENS!” Surely that is a foregone conclusion? Surely there are few of us that haven’t had the lived experience ourselves?
Though perhaps I’ve just missed the point. (It wouldn’t be the first time.) If we assume the purpose of the exercise is not to promote the existence of depression as a concept, but rather to connect people with shared experiences and resources that benefit their own mental health and well-being the task suddenly becomes much more pragmatic in nature. Clearly here there are some very useful applications for blogs and social media.
- Shared Experiences: Sometimes there is solace to be had just by knowing you’re not alone and connecting with other people who share similar interests or similar challenges. The nature of most sites allow you to observe others (viewer of a video, reader of a blog) or contribute yourself. Type “Depressed” into YouTube search, for example, and quickly you are presented by people who are genuinely depressed. This isn’t the stuff of nice Public Service Announcement type videos, this is real user-generated content! You will also find more specialised content if you seek it, such as resources relating to specific medical conditions (manic depression, dissociative identity disorder) or living conditions (youth, gay and lesbian, rural living).
- Information: Peter Costello recently remarked on a disagreement (about a historical event) he had with his children. In order to determine who was right, Peter went to his library. His children went to the internet. This is true of a lot of people. The internet has the potential to be a great resource for information on specific conditions and treatments, as well as for practical strategies for coping with stress, trauma and grief. The challenge, I suppose, is that anyone can publish anything, so identifying trusted sources is very important. It may be more comfortable for people to research topics that might have stigma associated with them in this way, rather than borrowing a book from a library or discussing it with a medical profession.
- Interaction: It is my hope that text-based chat programs would be set up to rival the telephone counseling hotlines we are already familiar with. This would be of benefit to people who appreciate the relative anonymity of the internet. It might also be of benefit for people who feel more comfortable communicating via text, or whose living arrangements might make articulating problems and concerns aloud difficult. Similarly, through social networking sites and the blogs and videos mentioned above, individuals can make contact with other people dealing with similar challenges.
- Reference Points: The online world can point us in the direction of resources in the offline (real, or IRL – “In Real Life”) world too. Support Groups. Doctors. Other forms of media not available online (books, DVDs). Being able to identify what is available quickly and easily helps us organise a course of action. Technologies such as Google Maps and WhereIs help us identify where those things are, once we establish what they are!
Can you suggest any other applications for blogs and social media relating to depression and mental health? If so, please your thoughts as a comment.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I think a lot of Mental Health Week activities are also developed to simply raise awareness of mental illness and just how common it is.
If we can remove the stigma that surrounds mental illness, there will be more acceptance and understanding about it, and in turn, more people will be able to seek treatment because it won’t be such a bad thing to have mental disease or disorder.
It’s easy to be cynical about these kind of things. Awareness is a bit of a dodgy term since everyone is aware that this stuff exists. What people are not aware of is how to deal with it, when it happens to them or someone they know.
For me, Blue Day was about realising that I wasn’t necessarily aware of the best ways to help people I love if they become depressed. It’s too easy to just let someone try to deal with it themselves, wait until they’re better. However, sometimes they’re not able to deal with it themselves and it’s more important at that time more than any other to let them know you love them. Otherwise it’s too easy for people to convince themselves that “if I were to disappear right now into the ether, no one would even notice”.
I’m giving away two copies of a book written by the husband of a woman who is “in remission” from depression. There’s still time to enter if you’d like to.
kristarellas last blog post..Now That You Are Back – Blue Day 2008
VOICE – even if it’s not shared, simply writing it down helps. Diaries are often suggested to help, blogs etc can simply be another avenue.
ANONYMITY – the opportunity to ask questions, or even vent, without shocking a support group or reveal things they don’t want to reveal yet publicly.
ENTERTAINMENT – often under valued. A lot of members of my communities are housebound, or terminally ill. Being able to play an online game and chat (whether it’s Texas Hold’em Poker or World of Warcraft) can give respite at least for a while, from personal worries and pain.
ACTIVISM – people together don’t just chat. Sometimes they form real world events, or activities. This can help with self esteem. The Arabic women project I was involved in in Saudi Arabia addressed issues of self esteem (iMatter.mbc.net). Real world change can come from social media, aiding those who are affected by restrictive or depressing real world situations. One of the projects was business plans for Arabic women and fulfilling those business needs. The biggest issue for the women was depression due to feeling as tho they had no voice.
LEADERSHIP – Maslows hierarchy of needs appropos social network online infers that if you can provide sustainability of identity, common values and some form of safe environment, then the community will start to work on issues of self-esteem, taking roles and leadership positions (‘cop’, ‘welcomer’) which will have a real world benefit.
Dunno, probably more, will think some on it all
Laurel Papworths last blog post..Even Traditional Media prefer Facebook
I think your point are right, but add to that the need to gain insight, to hear what you are saying or thinking.
Sometimes being caught in the cloud of depression doesn’t make for the best decision making or allow clarity of thought, so blogging, talking to friends hopefully allows you to hear your own voice and gain a better understanding and insight.
Another factor is the need to do something different to get a different outcome versus suffering in silence.
There is still a lot of negative opinions and discrimination towards people who suffer depression and melancholy, and so often it easier to be quite about it. Those who are trying to reach out are brave and desperate to make change and deserve our support, love and help.
Depression and mental health disorder seem to be rampant in today’s society. It seems that many people suffer in silence. I am glad you are doing this. I hope this will help many people and we can all help each other.