I came across this campaign on LinkedIn a few months when someone posted about it and later I managed to find that it was created for the German Depression Aid Foundation last year. I remember first seeing the image with the words ‘STEFFEN HAS DEPRESSION‘ and then noticing the second set of words ‘at second glance‘, as the campaign has been titled. It really spoke to me, and even now when I’ve told to people about it, I get emotional, which I think shows how much it resonated with me.
I’ve never written about this but I’ve been suffering from mental health issues for a long time and was diagnosed with depression earlier this year. I’ve noticed in the last few months that I’ve become more and more introverted than I normally am, withdrawing from the world around me and behaving very abruptly which has affected my personal and professional lives. I’ve also been in my head too much, and I haven’t felt like being in contact or socialising with others because I don’t want to bother or burden them with my own problems if they ask how I’m doing.
This campaign reminded me that, like many others, I sometimes put on a brave face and pretend nothing is wrong, when in fact deep down, it is. But having a clinician give a name to the condition, although deep down I already knew what it was, has helped me as I now know what I’m fighting against. I started speaking to a therapist and taking medication and although I’ve stopped both for different reasons, I’m conscious of the importance of seeking help and sticking with it over the long term.
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