Depression affects more than 300 million individuals worldwide, and each person’s experience is different. It’s a mental illness that can show up in a variety of ways. People may experience feelings of emptiness, isolation, detachment, depression, or lack of motivation. They could also become more unreasonable or destructive as a result. In addition to other forms of art, we need films on depression to better comprehend, relate to, and empathize with the diverse ways in which people experience depression.
What does depression actually mean?
Depression is a serious mental health problem and a mood disorder that involves more than just feeling depressed. With 7.3 million individuals suffering from it, it is one of the most widespread mental diseases in the United States. Depression causes a slew of bad feelings on a daily basis, altering how people think, feel, and perform. One’s capacity to sleep, work, and enjoy life are all significantly impacted. A profound sensation of hopelessness and despair that never seems to end is a common side effect of depression. Depression is characterized by feelings of “numbness,” “self-loathing,” difficulties concentrating, low energy, and death-related thoughts. From moderate and transient to significant and persistent, depression can be classified. A severe kind of depression is, for instance, clinical depression.
movies featuring depression
A major mental health issue, depression is a mood condition that involves more than just feeling down. It is one of the most prevalent mental illnesses in the US, affecting 7.3 million people. Daily negative emotions brought on by depression change how people think, feel, and act. Sleep, productivity, and enjoyment of life are all adversely affected. One typical side effect of depression is a terrible sense of hopelessness and despair that never seems to stop. “Numbness,” “self-loathing,” trouble focusing, poor energy, and death-related thoughts are all signs of depression. Depression may be divided into two categories: mild and transitory, and major and enduring. Clinical depression is one example of a severe type of depression.
We polled our network of more than 1,000 therapists and kept note of the films they suggested most frequently to whittle down the list. These movies concentrate on the actual nature of depression: what it is, how it manifests, and how it impacts both the person experiencing it and those around them. Using our criteria, the best films on depression are listed below. We categorized them by dividing the hidden gems (related films that people don’t frequently suggest) from the popular picks.
Hidden Gems
1. Anomalisa
Sometimes the people you expect to be joyful are really depressed. The motivational book author Michael Stone, who writes on business effectiveness and customer service success, is the subject of “Anomalisa.”
Stone is chronically sad while being an expert in assisting people to have better, happier lives. He despises himself and feels cut off from the rest of the world. The movie uses a viewpoint where Stone thinks that everyone in the world sounds almost exactly the same to demonstrate this. It exemplifies the existential challenges of having depression.
2. The World’s Greatest Dad
People often don’t treat folks who are depressed with much compassion due to the stigma associated with mental illness. When a depressed person commits suicide, though, they do show sympathy. A failing novelist and high school poetry teacher named Lance Clayton is the subject of the movie “World’s Greatest Dad.” He is seeing a woman, but she does not want to declare their connection to the world. Additionally, he is hated by his underachieving, pornographic-obsessed son.
Clayton arranges his son’s body to make it look as though he committed himself after he passes away from an autoerotic asphyxiation accident. In order to escape disgrace, he then crafts a false suicide note that is incredibly lyrical. According to the message, his son committed suicide as a result of depression. Actually, Clayton is the one who is down. He was depressed, which is why his suicide letter was so believable. However, when his friends read the message and think it’s lovely, it’s his dead kid who gets praise and pity. The same neighborhood that previously saw his kid just as a jerk and a loser now hails him as a gifted poet who battled mental illness.
3. Cake
People who have ongoing discomfort, disability, or sickness frequently experience severe depression. The protagonist of “Cake,” Claire, battles despair after losing her child in a car accident that also leaves her in constant agony. She feels like she can only moan about life due to her sadness and lack of hope for her recovery.
4. Sylvia
Sylvia Plath is well known for her literary works that discuss her despair. In “Sylvia,” excerpts of her poems are combined with an examination of her melancholy and marriage to fellow poet Ted Hughes.
5. The Skeleton Twins
The narrative of an estranged brother and sister is told in “The Skeleton Twins,” who reconcile after the male makes an attempt at suicide and the sister gives it some thought. Scenes throughout the story unravel the reasons for their depression and how it impacts their lives. They both struggle to enjoy and achieve anything in their lives. They frequently use illogical and harmful behavior as a coping mechanism.
6. Interiors
Depression hurts everyone, not just the individual who has it. Others may also feel the strain; it’s not just the individual who has it. Others may also feel the strain. When caring for someone who has depression, some people develop animosity toward the person they are helping. At such a moment, they have two options: either they leave the person they are caring for or they try to deal with their annoyance.
In the movie “Interiors,” a family disintegrates when the father leaves the mother because he is sick of taking care of her while she battles dementia and chronic depression. In response, Eve, the mother, makes an attempt on her life. She then spends years getting therapy at a sanitarium, on occasion. Joey, one of her daughters, is tasked with taking care of her. Joey vents her frustration and worry on her mother. Their relationship serves as an example of how sadness may cause families to fall into a cycle of animosity.
7. Garden State
Depression is mostly shaped by negative ideas. They may end up weighing individuals down and stealing their delight. Actor Andrew Largeman’s character in “Garden State” thinks he caused the accident that left his mother crippled and ultimately killed her. He is now apathetic and numb to many parts of life due to the weight of this guilt.
8. Little Miss Sunshine
The dark comedy “Little Miss Sunshine” shows how sadness can affect entire families. All of the Faris family members, with the exception of Olive, the title character and youngest daughter, experience some kind of sadness. Because of the stress on their mental health, they frequently lash out at one another, which makes their sadness worse.
Olive develops an understanding of what clinical depression is and how it is hurting her family as a result of the struggles and outbursts of her family members. She understands how important she is to her family and how she makes them feel better about themselves.
9. Numb
In the movie “Numb,” Hudson Milbank, a renowned screenwriter, is diagnosed by his doctor with depression and depersonalization disorder, a mental disease that causes times of feeling cut off from one’s body and intellect. The movie attacks the propensity for overprescribing pharmaceuticals by showing how the psychiatrists Milbank consults with think that drugs are the main cause of his troubles.
Frequent Recommendations
10. The Hours
In “The Hours,” two ladies are shown reading Virginia Woolf’s renowned book “Mrs. Dalloway,” which is about a pampered, sad woman who lives in England after the First World War. Each woman experiences depression differently and can relate to different parts of Woolf’s book. In the movie, Woolf is also portrayed.
11. It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Trauma, abuse, sorrow, toxic settings, or a dysfunctional family are not necessary causes of depression. It is a condition as well as a manner of seeing the world. Even those who lead relatively simple lives are capable of developing a string of erroneous, pessimistic attitudes that plunge them into sadness and the notion of suicide.
This occurs to Craig, a 16-year-old character in “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” who is doing well in school and overall leading a happy life. His sadness is mostly a result of his conviction that any failure would ultimately lead to his downfall. He believes that in every manner, he falls short. When he realizes how depressed he is, he checks himself into a psychiatric institution.
Emperor is a talented content writer and big anime fan, who delivers engaging and accessible information through thorough research. His writing is both informative and entertaining, breaking down complex concepts with ease and making it a pleasure to read and share his work.