Feeling depressed? It happens to everyone: bad day, fight with a loved one, difficulties at work, visiting relatives for a week … there are tons of reasons for feeling « down ».
Suffering from depression, however, is a completely different thing. The person loses interest in activities they love. They no longer have fun. They are deeply tired, anxious and not sleeping well. Sometimes, they think it might be better if they weren’t alive anymore. It’s a serious health condition that requires quick medical and psychological intervention.
Unfortunately, many prejudices exist about depression. How many times have you heard comments such as:
« He’s not really depressed … he just pretends to get a sick leave! »
« Depressed, is she? We work 10 times harder and we’re not depressed! She’s just weak and she doesn’t want to get a hold of herself. She likes it when people pity her. »
While it’s true that fraud in sick leaves constitutes a real problem and that depressed people often have to make changes in their lives in order to heal, prejudices of the sort do nothing to improve the situation.
This comic tries to.
Translation by Olivier Bernard, proofreading by Lauren Knight.
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Hi Olivier!
This comic was fantastic. I am so glad that you decided to include a lot about employment and stigma. I really hope that over time employers will train their supervisors and managers in stigma prevention more prevalently.
A very good friend and myself have both suffered from clinical (hospitalized many times in our teen years) depression in the past and we have both commented on how people have become miseducated with the word « depression » and that it is becoming very common place which also allows for perpetual stigmatization.
I hope that at some point there will be more resources and education and this comic is great because it really does break down the truth down to some easy to digest pieces.
(Your Dandelion cancer comic was also fantastic and how I originally found your site).
Hi Matthew!
I totally agree with you regarding the need for more training within businesses about depression. It’s even more crucial considering that people suffering from clinical depression need to come back at work at some point, and facing the the prejudices of managers or coworkers can be a challenge in itself.
Thanks for the good words and for your comment!
Olivier