Joann Won

Mental illness is a common issue amongst high school students yet it is undiscussed. This leads to common misconceptions and misdiagnosis of a student’s deteriorating mental state as a phase of laziness or “puberty”. In order for it is important for the public to understand symptoms of mental illness

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The most common mental illnesses amongst students are anxiety and depression. The common symptoms of depression and anxiety are persistent sadness, worry, hopelessness, and etc. It can affect the behavior by increasing irritability and decreasing concentration and energy. These symptoms can be spotted through careful observation. However, one can still have depression and/or anxiety without showing the stereotypical symptoms. Everyone reacts differently to mental illness. People may appear one way but may not reflect inwardly on what they appear to be. So, just because someone acts happy doesn’t mean they necessarily are.

When someone who expressed unstereotypical symptoms of mental illness reveal their illness the initial feeling is shock and surprise . Many family and friends of those with mental illness are initially surprised because of the mentioned misconception of people not appearing as they appear to be. Therefore, I would like to discuss the topic of mental health awareness for my chimes. My main audience being those who are unaware of this fact. 

By using the contrast of the chime’s pleasant appearance and written text of phrases portray several symptoms, I would like to send a message to the audience that mental illness and its symptoms can be masked as something misleading. By doing so, I would like to fix a social sustainability problem as this will bring awareness and focus to a neglectful topic of social sustainability within a community: mental health. 

I will be using fragile materials, such as glass and paper, to express the the true fragility that is masked by the pleasant outer frame that masks the true feelings. The veil/curtain of pleasant origami shows the mask of false health. When looking inside the veil/curtain, one can see the true struggles that will be represented by the glass case and the material inside of it, revealing the true state of mental wellbeing. I hope to create an insightful piece so that students can come away with a deeper awareness of mental health stereotypes.