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As a documentary enthusiast, what impressed me the most are excellent documentaries like “My First Time,” “My Second Time,” “But There Are Books,” and “Human World.” Recently, during the open week for documentaries on Bilibili, I randomly came across the documentary “How Do We Combat Depression?” by CCTV, which instantly brought back memories for me.
Back then, I hadn’t formally encountered psychology. One afternoon on a weekend, I watched this documentary on CCTV, and the first time I watched it, I saw the perseverance and self-rescue of depression patients. Now working in the psychological counseling industry, rewatching it gave me new insights and gains.
Bravely opening up to parents is often the first step for depressed young people to rescue themselves. For depression patients, family support is crucial. The parents in the documentary are a relatively open-minded group. Although they didn’t understand depression, they actively encouraged their children to seek treatment, accompany them to hospitals, attend psychological counseling sessions, and as a result, these children gradually improved.
However, among the viewers, many depression patients expressed difficulty resonating with the video. Many of them faced the lack of understanding from their parents, where phrases like “you are just being dramatic” became labels in their parents’ eyes.
The opposite of depression is not happiness but vitality. This sense of detachment from life and lethargy is often misunderstood by those around as laziness and lack of ambition. These depression patients who are not receiving adequate attention are like living in a painful abyss, longing for someone to pull them out, with many young lives forever stuck in the bloom of youth.
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The root of these issues lies in the general public’s lack of understanding of mental illnesses, especially in underdeveloped areas where superstitious beliefs like “possession by ghosts” still exist. On the brighter side, nowadays, the general public’s attention to mental health is increasing, such as some communities in Xi’an implementing pilot programs for psychological services.
If there are positives, there are also negatives. For example, many people now know about depression, but do they understand it? The answer is often no. And do some so-called psychological counselors really understand depression? In reality, not necessarily.
Currently, the qualification and review system for psychological counselors is not perfect, leading to many impostors in the market. Some of these so-called psychological counselors may only have basic psychology education, lacking practical counseling experience and professional knowledge accumulation, and even may lack an understanding of the laws and ethical standards related to mental health diagnosis and treatment. This often results in their incomplete and inaccurate understanding of common mental illnesses like depression, hindering their ability to provide effective help to patients.
Another phenomenon is whether you’ve heard of the term “yuyu” or not. Perhaps those who use this term may do so in jest, but this inadvertently deepens the stigmatization of depression and hampers the dissemination of mental health knowledge. As a practitioner, I feel that the road to popularizing psychological knowledge is still long and arduous.
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Finally, as a member of Mandala Psychology, I sincerely advocate for everyone: where you have the ability, shed light. If you are a psychological counselor or aspire to be one in the future, it is recommended that, under feasible conditions, you continue learning and further your skills in terms of professional ethics and enhancement, and obtain relevant certifications through legitimate channels to ensure your professional level and the quality of your counseling services. If you are part of the general public, also pay attention to the development and standardization of the psychological counseling service industry. If you are a visitor seeking counseling, make sure to choose reputable institutions and qualified psychological counselors to avoid being influenced by unprofessional and irresponsible counselors.
The healthy and orderly development of the psychological counseling industry requires collective effort from all of us!
