For this project, we studied mental illnesses that are affecting young people between the ages of 13 and 25. We chose a mental illness that sounded interesting and conducted a case study report about the illness explaining symptoms, the history of the illness, treatment options, and statistics. Along with that, we read All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven and document our reading through dialectical journals. With that, we wrote creative writing pieces about a character with the illness that we wrote our case studies on. I chose to study Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Body Dysmorphic disorder is a mental disorder where a person becomes obsessed with a perceived flaw or defect in their appearance. This disorder is common amongst teens, and due to the unrealistic standards society has set for them, has immensely increased over the years.
I learned how serious these illnesses are. I feel like society perceives having a mental illness as something extremely negative. I chose to create this project in order to help students shy away from those negative stereotypes and highlight that having an illness isn't something to be ashamed of. It is so common nowadays to have some type of mental illness that we have to learn to accept others despite their struggles. I learned that these illnesses don't only affect the person that has them, but others around that person too. In order to help them, we have to be willing to not sympathize but empathize for them, because we will never really know how they are feeling. Exhibition was set up in a mock clinic style. Students made case files for their character from their creative writing piece. Attached were ID cards that would give the audience two options of a diagnosis that they had to figure out which was true and which was false. At booths, there were student created art therapy lessons. For my art therapy lesson, I had my audience create "Happiness Lines" by gluing photos of things that made them happy onto polaroid's and attach them to a string. Overall, I think exhibition was a success. |