The aim of my project is to take away the negative aspect of seeking help. Many people consider themselves “weak” or even “crazy” for wanting to see a therapist. I want to change that. I want people to feel safe and comfortable about going to therapy and about bettering themselves. They shouldn’t feel embarrassed or scared to help themselves.
There are many stereotypes about therapy that is designed to break people down. Some stereotypes: Seeking help is weak, it’s only for crazy people, it’s expensive and you can’t afford it, you have to go through a traumatic experience, you will be prescribed medications, etc. I don’t want these stereotypes to be seen as a barrier for people. There are so many benefits to therapy that I want to target to people especially younger people and people of color. Therapy can help people feel like they are not alone, it can give people a new perspective, physical symptoms can also be treated as well. Physical symptoms can take a serious toll on a person’s body when dealing with mental illnesses such as stress and depression. Symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, rise of a heart attack, weakened immune system, high blood pressure, and even fertility problems.
Mental health is something that affects a lot of people. Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States experience mental illness in a given year. In addition to that, approximately 1 in 5 youth aged (13-18) experience a severe mental disorder at some point in their life. “African Americans and Hispanic Americans each use mental health services at about one-half the rate of Caucasian Americans and Asian Americans at about one-third the rate.” “Half of all chronic mental illness begins by age 14.”
For my project, I will be creating a gif. This gif will conduct different perceptions/stereotypes that people associate with mental health. It will start with the sentence, therapy is for ______ people. It will consist of negative words filling in the blank. Then an x will cross it out and it will change to the sentence, therapy is ______. That blank will be filled with positive opinions about therapy. The words that fill in the blank will be in different fonts to represent more than one person, so it doesn’t seem like it’s one person thinking it.
Testing it, I will show it to people and ask them what they think of it overall. Then I would ask them what they would fill in the blank with. Would their thoughts go with what the gif is representing or do they have a different opinion? I believe that doing this in person could be beneficial because I will be able to communicate with the viewer and have an understanding on what they think.
