Educational Media Reviews Online

This Canadian production provides an honest, up-front overview of the growing and mysterious disease of depression. What makes this program different than others on the topic, is the crystal clear emphasis on the need for social and governmental recognition that depression is a real, physical disease and should be treated as such.

In familiar documentary style, Depression: Fighting the Dragon, follows five people diagnosed with depression, covering the various symptoms, consequences, and treatments that are available. Personal stories illustrate the varying degrees of the disease and highlight some of the newer technologies available for treatment. They also zero in on the above-mentioned importance of changing the stigma associated with mental illness, which forces most people to suffer in silence. One woman profiled, Karen, describes the conflict of talking openly about her illness at dinner one evening and being asked by her husband not to air her “dirty laundry” in public. She rightly asks, “If I had Parkinson’s Disease would I be considered someone’s dirty laundry?”

A well-made, professional production, Depression: Fighting the Dragon is recommended for a general young adult through adult audience. Academic library collections will find it useful as a compliment to more in-depth programs.