Why this is important: Beating the stigma
There will always be some who don't understand depression. There is a huge stigma around it. And that's why projects like Employed By Depression are so important, encouraging society to be more open about mental health will eventually lead to a stigma-free attitude to things like depression. Although we are slowly moving forward, and people are becoming more and more willing to talk about it, it feels like there is still a wall within the workplace.
This stigma causes some ignorant people to believe that depression is something that can be just 'gotten over' or that people can just go on normally, not realising how debilitating it can be. As I work on this project, this becomes more and more obvious and I am constantly reminded of why this is so important. One of these key things was when I called out to people suffering from depression on Twitter and received one particularly eye opening comment from an online 'troll'.
This was what they submitted:
This is an attitude I have personally experienced, a lot, as someone who suffers from depression. People often think that just getting out of bed will 'fix' you, and don't realise that some days that just isn't possible. I have such a personal drive for this project, as I have been fired due to my depression: having been told to not come back to work because of my head. And so teaching people about this is something so important, as even when using the project account or my personal account to take part in discussions about it, I receive responses like this:
Because of all of this, I made this vlog response to this backlash by people who don't understand. Rather than responding and arguing, projects like EBD will hopefully open their minds to the reality of depression and mental illness.
