GOAL: The goal of my project was to create a clear, simple message that was easy for people to understand. I wanted to take away the negative thinking of therapy, that some people might think of. There are many stereotypes that people associate with therapy. These stereotypes bring people down and make them less wanting to get help. For the keywords document done in class, all the words that people thought of had a negative connotation to it.
RESEARCH: 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.”
PROJECT PLAN: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.
DESIGN PROCESS: For the project, I created a gif. I thought this would allow people to understand my message more effectively. At first, I created a gif that had a black background to represent the negative aspects, that people associate with therapy. As a result of my research, people associate darker colors with feelings of sadness. Once the gif frame switched to positive thinking of therapy, the background still stayed the same. Once I finished the completed gif, I watched it over and over again, realizing it was hard to differentiate the positive from the negative, due to the same background color. There was no major changes, just the words. I then went back and changed the positive words to a white background. This then made it easier to realize which were positive and which were negative.
CLASS FEEDBACK: The first question I got was why I chose to do a gif. My answer to this question is that I wanted to create a simple moving image that would capture peoples attention. Another question I received was, who is my target audience. My goal was to have this directed toward younger people, who were ashamed or uncomfortable seeking help.
SELF-REFLECTION: This project has made me realize how much negativity is thought about when seeking help. When asking people about therapy, they think of it as scary or a waste of time, when in reality it can be very helpful. Having someone to talk through things with you can help you feel an extreme amount of relief. Doing my research for this project has made me realize how many people suffer from mental illnesses and how they feel like they don’t have someone to talk to or are too shy to seek help.
TESTING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM: 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.
TESTING RESULTS:
