Documentary
Confessions of a Depressed Comic
Producer: Ted Talk
Year: 2013
Length: 11 minutes
Rating: (Not Rated)
Snippet(Watch from the beginning to 1:51)
In this Ted Talk, we listen to the stand up comedian, Kevin Breel, discuss his experience with depression. Breel explains how he felt as though he lived a double life; the life he lived that everyone knew, and the life he lived that he only knew about. Depression may not be noticeable to outsiders. To others, Breel was a popular high school student, a stand up comedian, etc. But, in his “second” life, he suffered from depression. Breel goes on to talk about statistics regarding depression and how it affects many people. He motivates others with depression to speak out, and bring to light the prevalence of depression. He wants people to accept themselves as they are, and work to become better. This is the best choice to show middle schoolers, because it doesn’t simply tell them the symptoms./characteristics of depression, and statistics about it. Rather, it tells a personal story, a story that many adolescents can relate to. It will make them feel less stigmatized for having depression, and motivate them to speak out. That is why this is the best choice for a documentary on depression for adolescents.
This would be a great video to show a class, as some students may feel to nervous to share their feelings and what they are going through. It will let people know that, you aren’t alone, and you too can share your “second” life with the world. Once the students have watched this video, I would ask them to write a narrative about their double life. They will write about things that people know about them, and then things people don’t know about them. Then they will go on to write about how they experience pain, whether it be a body part, sadness, or depression. Then they will finish it off by writing about how they believe that they could help themselves or others overcome the stigma of depression and other mental health problems and fight back. We will then have a class discussion about what we learned, and how we feel.
Health Standards
NHES Standard 2: “Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology, and other factors on health behaviors.”
HBO1: Express feelings in a healthy way.
HBO2: Engage in activities that are both mentally and emotionally healthy.
HBO 4: Prevent and manage emotional stress and anxiety in healthy ways.
MEH1.8.13 Explain the causes, symptoms, and effects of depression.
MEH1.8.27 Explain how the expression of emotions and feelings can help and hurt oneself or others.
MEH2.8.3 Explain how social expectations influence healthy and unhealthy mental and emotional health practices and behaviors.
MEH2.8.6 Analyze how relevant influences of family and culture affect mental and emotional health practices and behaviors.
MEH2.8.9 Analyze how relevant influences of peers affect mental and emotional health practices and behaviors.
Common Core Standards:
CCSS.ELA.W.8.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
CCSS.ELA.SL.8.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Popular Film
Inside Out (2015)
Producer: Pixar Animation Studios
Length: 1hr 35 min
Rating: PG
Inside Out is about the emotions inside a young girl, Riley’s head. The plot follows specifically Joy and Sadness, as they try to save some of Riley’s core memories from being lost in long-term memory forever, after a mishap at “home-base”. I found that the way the movie addresses the relationship between sadness and joy inside someone’s mind to be very realistic, and would be a fantastic tool for promoting conversation about the intermingling of these specific emotions, especially in terms of depression and mental health more broadly. In the film, Joy tends to push Sadness away, and make it seem as though Sadness just shouldn’t exist. But by the end of the movie however, Joy and Sadness have a relationship in which they understand each other, and that each are important and valid emotions. This is the kind of relationship between emotions, and the stance on mental health that we want to promote when teaching students about mental health, that all feelings, even the ones we don’t like are valid, and pushing them down or ignoring them isn’t the way to go about feeling better.
This movie would probably be the focus of a longer, week long lesson if I was integrating it into the classroom. The first day or two would have to be used to watch the movie, then have a discussion about the movie, and how it relates to the topic of mental health. Specifically, how our emotions are related to each other, for example sometimes people will feel angry and disgusted at the same time, or sad and jealous at the same time. Then, to integrate into a core subject, students could do a writing activity. To promote students creatively expressing their emotions, they would do a poetry writing piece, in which they write a short poem about a time in which they felt multiple emotions at once, like the characters in the movie arguing at “home-base” while Riley is doing something in the outside world, feeling all of the things they are yelling about. To then further promote the creativity side, students could create an illustration to go along with their poems.
Standards
National Health Education Standards
Standard 7: Students will demonstrate the ability to practice health-enhancing behaviors and avoid or reduce health risks.
Healthy Behavior Outcomes
- Express feelings in a healthy way.
- Prevent and manage emotional stress and anxiety in healthy ways.
Mental and Emotional Health Education
MEH 1.8.29 Examine the importance of being aware of one’s feelings and of being sensitive to the feelings of others.
MEH1.8.27 Explain how the expression of emotions and feelings can help and hurt oneself or others.
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.