Investigate
Suicide is the third leading cause of death from ages 10 to 24. Suicide is triggered by depression, and one in eight adolescents suffer from depression. Teenage depression has gradually turned into one of the biggest issues amongst teens today. I chose this topic because I myself have experienced depression, and I know many teens my age, younger or older, have as well. This is a serious and important issue happening all around us nearly everywhere in the world, yet we do nothing about it. There are young boys and girls taking their lives due to depression triggered from bullying, family tragedies, or stress. My goal for this project is to convince any people who are in doubt that depression is a serious issue and that we have the power to help if we just listen. I feel as if the best way to express the emotion and seriousness behind this project is to make a powerful video. The video/animation I will be creating will display certain images and videos that show sentiment and triggers certain emotions of whoever is watching. There will be sad and dramatic music in the background, and a poem that I will write will be read along with the background music. I want this video to be powerful, and I want the viewer to learn from it and think back to it even after they’ve seen it. This is a challenging product for me to create because I do not have a lot of experience making videos or animations. I want to challenge myself though, and make this video as powerful as possible. Another challenging aspect of this project is trying to convince people that depression is a serious issue today, because there are some students or teachers or parents in disbelief. Although this may also be a challenge, I want my video to be an inspirational and motivational video for those whom have suffered from depression, and I want the video to give them hope. Overall, I want to raise awareness about teenage depression to teachers, students and parents, and to create an inspirational video for teens that have suffered from it.
My topic is teenage depression, therefore the Area of Interaction which it correlates with is Health and Social Education. Teenage depression falls under this category because depression is a mental health issue, which could be caused from social issues such as bullying. Since I have experienced depression and have known people who have as well, I have quite a bit of background knowledge upon the topic. I know that there are many symptoms of depression, such as: insomnia or hypersomnia, lack of energy, lack of pleasure in activities and life, anxiety, and recurring thoughts of death and suicide. 1 in 8 adolescents or teenagers suffer from depression, which makes this topic even more personal because it happening everywhere in the world. There is more than one type of depression, for example, there is major depression, chronic depression, bipolar depression, seasonal depression and many more. Every person who suffers from depression has their own type and their own symptoms and their own way of dealing with it. Unfortunately, one of the most popular ways of expressing depressed feelings is through self-harm. One in four depressed teenagers have self-harmed. Self-harm can lead to more serious things such as potential suicide.
An excellent final product requires excellent research skills. In order to have excellent research skills, you must know how to determine what makes up a good and reliable source, and how to tell a good and a bad source apart. I used a variety of different sources. An example of an excellent source of mine was http://teenshealth.org/teen/your_mind/feeling_sad/why_depressed.html, my second source. This is an excellent source because this website serves mainly as a place for parents and teenagers to go to in order to find information about anything related to teens and their health. This website provides a lot of information about depression because that is one main illness that a lot of teens struggle with. This website is reliable because all of the information comes from past parents of depressed teens, doctors, or teens themselves who give personal input. Another example of a great source was the book “Depression”, my seventh source. This book covers every aspect of depression, types of depression, reasons for depression, history of depression, and outcomes of depression. This book was written by an author named Dianne Hales who used to work in the field of Psychology. Inside the book where it states the editors of the book, all of them are either psychologists, doctors, therapists, or professors which assures the reader that all the facts and information about depression is reliable. An example of a bad source is http://www.pearlsprogram.org/Our-Program/About-Depression/Causes-and-Effects-of-Depression.aspx, my fifth source. This source is not appropriate for my project because all the information given on the website has to do with adult and senior depression and the physical effects it has upon their health. Although this source is still stating information about depression, it does not correlate with my exact topic, making it an unfitting source. Some research questions which I came up with when researching were:
1. What is depression?
2. Who is affected by depression?
3. Why are so many teenagers depressed?
4. What are the effects of depression?
5. Why do people get depressed?
6. What causes depression?
7. How can depression be prevented?
(Process Journal Entry #2)
These research questions guided me through the investigation stage to help me find reliable sources and research thoroughly. Using questions like these during my research definitely helped me with organizing my thoughts and helped me make a deeper search. I do not only need to research information about depression though, but also about how to create my product. In order to create a successful product, I am starting to find more websites and videos to demonstrate how to make an animation or a high quality professional looking video.
My topic is teenage depression, therefore the Area of Interaction which it correlates with is Health and Social Education. Teenage depression falls under this category because depression is a mental health issue, which could be caused from social issues such as bullying. Since I have experienced depression and have known people who have as well, I have quite a bit of background knowledge upon the topic. I know that there are many symptoms of depression, such as: insomnia or hypersomnia, lack of energy, lack of pleasure in activities and life, anxiety, and recurring thoughts of death and suicide. 1 in 8 adolescents or teenagers suffer from depression, which makes this topic even more personal because it happening everywhere in the world. There is more than one type of depression, for example, there is major depression, chronic depression, bipolar depression, seasonal depression and many more. Every person who suffers from depression has their own type and their own symptoms and their own way of dealing with it. Unfortunately, one of the most popular ways of expressing depressed feelings is through self-harm. One in four depressed teenagers have self-harmed. Self-harm can lead to more serious things such as potential suicide.
An excellent final product requires excellent research skills. In order to have excellent research skills, you must know how to determine what makes up a good and reliable source, and how to tell a good and a bad source apart. I used a variety of different sources. An example of an excellent source of mine was http://teenshealth.org/teen/your_mind/feeling_sad/why_depressed.html, my second source. This is an excellent source because this website serves mainly as a place for parents and teenagers to go to in order to find information about anything related to teens and their health. This website provides a lot of information about depression because that is one main illness that a lot of teens struggle with. This website is reliable because all of the information comes from past parents of depressed teens, doctors, or teens themselves who give personal input. Another example of a great source was the book “Depression”, my seventh source. This book covers every aspect of depression, types of depression, reasons for depression, history of depression, and outcomes of depression. This book was written by an author named Dianne Hales who used to work in the field of Psychology. Inside the book where it states the editors of the book, all of them are either psychologists, doctors, therapists, or professors which assures the reader that all the facts and information about depression is reliable. An example of a bad source is http://www.pearlsprogram.org/Our-Program/About-Depression/Causes-and-Effects-of-Depression.aspx, my fifth source. This source is not appropriate for my project because all the information given on the website has to do with adult and senior depression and the physical effects it has upon their health. Although this source is still stating information about depression, it does not correlate with my exact topic, making it an unfitting source. Some research questions which I came up with when researching were:
1. What is depression?
2. Who is affected by depression?
3. Why are so many teenagers depressed?
4. What are the effects of depression?
5. Why do people get depressed?
6. What causes depression?
7. How can depression be prevented?
(Process Journal Entry #2)
These research questions guided me through the investigation stage to help me find reliable sources and research thoroughly. Using questions like these during my research definitely helped me with organizing my thoughts and helped me make a deeper search. I do not only need to research information about depression though, but also about how to create my product. In order to create a successful product, I am starting to find more websites and videos to demonstrate how to make an animation or a high quality professional looking video.