Serviceplan Health France’s humour sends a serious message about depression

Black humour shocks – usually with violence and gore. Serviceplan Health France’s black humour shocks with everyday doctor-patient situations – albeit exaggerated to make its point. Shocks because it presents a realistic picture of the general attitude to depression in too many cases.

The condition which can be seriously debilitating. It is often underestimated. The message behind the campaign is that depression is an illness, not a weakness of character.

The film, The Little Empty Passage, launched the campaign for Fondation Fondamental and Fnapsy (Fédération Nationale des Associations d’usagers en Psychiatrie) on World Mental Health Day, October 10, online and in social networks.

Every year, depression kills more than 6,000 people in France. It is still insufficiently understood, diagnosed and treated. If depression is left untreated, it can take a severe or chronic form and lead to suicide.

Professor Marion Leboyer, director of the Fondation FondaMental, stated, “It is urgent to end the myths surrounding depression, which impede its diagnosis and treatment, often resulting in dramatic consequences.“

Claude Finkelstein, President of Fnapsy, added, “Everyone thinks they understand depression, or have experienced it and know how to get out. In truth, there is very little understanding of the living hell experienced by the sufferer, which can include total annihilation of the will, the disappearance of all hope, and the terrible guilt that binds us.”