Background of Depression
Eeyore is a character who is very low energized and seen as “lazy” to everyone. Eeyore is a donkey that is grey, which represents how he is feeling. Eeyore suffers from clinical depression.
While clinical depression is not very common, it affects 18 million (1 in 10) adults. Depression isn’t a short-time sadness everyone feels. It’s long-lasting, can get worse over time, and interferes with daily activities. Severe depression has the potential to be a disabling condition. However, most cases of depression occur in episodes. Many people with depression lead happy, active, fulfilling lives in the periods between episodes. Medication, psychotherapy and healthy self-care practices can lessen the impact and severity of episodes when they do occur.
Some symptoms of depression are:
- feelings of sadness, loneliness, or emptiness that last most of the day for several days on end
- loss of interest or pleasure in activities that used to be enjoyable
- tiredness and chronic low energy
- difficulty thinking clearly, concentrating, making decisions or remembering
- feelings of worthlessness and guilt
- feelings of irritability, frustration or anger that are out of proportion with the circumstances
- restlessness and agitation
- sleep disturbances, including sleeping too much and sleeping too little (insomnia)
- change of appetite, most often leading to loss of weight, though some people may have increased appetite and weight gain
- Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide, as well as suicide attempts or plans
The Representation of Depression
The movie, Winnie the Pooh is filled with characters that represent different disorders. We will be exploring deeper into the character Eeyore, who is known to have behaviors and traits of clinical depression. There are a lot of traits that Eeyore shows that can back up this theory, including persistent sadness, low energy and motivation, isolation, negative outlook, and low self-esteem.
Eeyore is always shown as down and gloomy and his tone is consistently shown as hopeless and sad which are major keys of depression. Eeyore moves slowly all the time and seems tired. He lacks motivation and doesn’t want to do much. He is very pessimistic whenever he has to do something or when he is talking about something. He always looks to the worst in every situation and is negative about everything. He can never think something will go right or will go his way. He has a group of friends but he tends to isolate himself from the rest. Any chance he gets he tries to stay away and be by himself because he feels like he doesn’t belong with everyone else. Finally, Eeyore has very little self-worth and doesn’t value himself. He always talks badly about himself and doubts his ability to do anything.
Impact on Children
The movie, Winnie the Pooh, does a great job subtly representing all of these different disorders. Having each character represent a disorder allows kids to be able to see them in a gentle form and be able to learn about them through the movie. All of the traits that Eeyore shows are common signs of depression. In the movie, they show these traits in an understanding matter instead of a harsh way because it allows the children to be able to see what depression is and the symptoms of it. Eeyore’s group of friends always try to include him be by his side and support him. It shows children how Eeyore’s friends are there for him no matter what. The way Eeyore is portrayed in the movie subtly represents depression and it shows the viewers how it can affect someone.