Anxiety and depression are the two leading mental health disorders people all around the world suffer from. Often occurring at the same time or as an effect of the other, anxiety and depression do not just affect adults but approximately 8% of children and teenagers experience an anxiety disorder with many symptoms developing before age 21. An estimated 284 million people worldwide experienced an anxiety disorder in 2017, making it the most prevalent mental health disorder around the globe. While depression affects over 18 million adults (one in ten) in any given year and is the leading cause of disability for ages 15-44. Nearly 50% of Americans diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
However, still today there are numerous factors that prevent people from getting the proper treatment they need for their mental health disorder. Whether it’s health insurance that doesn’t give them enough coverage, or if it’s not being able to get transportation to their doctors, or maybe they don’t feel comfortable talking to someone about it. Whatever the reason is, every person deserves the right to be informed of more accessible ways to combat anxiety and depression. Some of these ways to help treat anxiety and depression, that don’t require a doctor, include: meditation, spending more time in nature, breathing exercises, practicing forgiveness, eating real, healthy food and drinking more water, accepting imperfection, and lastly staying connected to friends and family.
To help make people more aware of the steps they can take in helping themselves overcome anxiety and depression, I am creating a guerrilla campaign composed of posters, brochures, car pamphlets, sticker and coasters to pass out to the public. The brochures will be filled with information about each step and how it individually helps people work towards overcoming anxiety and depression. The poster is designed with a Sanskrit symbol of the word “Breathe”, which is divided into seven different colors that correspond with one of the seven steps. The car pamphlets are designed with a stack of rocks on water, each rock signifies a step and colored to correspond with that specific step as well. These two pieces are meant to notify the viewer of the steps one can take in healing themselves, while representing serenity, a feeling of calmness and peace, which is a feeling too often absent in people who are suffering from anxiety and depression. Each sticker will have a different step with an icon representing that specific step, while the coasters will have the Sanskrit symbol on some, the floating rocks on others, and a sigil I designed out of symbols that represent the seven steps, combined into one. Every piece of the campaign has a hashtag for people to use who are going through the same struggles as others, as well as a website where people can share their own experiences, ask for advice on specific struggles they are dealing with and support one another.
What I hope to achieve with this campaign is to bring people together who are suffering from common mental health disorders and letting them know they are not alone. My campaign gives people access to an online community where they can find support during a time in their lives when they shouldn’t feel like they have no one to turn to, as well as providing them information on steps that are easy and more accessible to help treat their mental health disorder.
“Any Anxiety Disorder.” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder.shtml.
“Facts about Depression.” Hope For Depression, https://www.hopefordepression.org/depression-
