About Depression

Depression is one of today's psychiatric disorders in society and is one of the subjects in the visual media. Cyber Bully is a 2011 film directed by Charles Biname about Taylor Hillridge (Emily Osment), a teenage girl who falls victim to online bullying and retires from spending time with her family and friends (Cyber Bully). As seen in this study, Taylor is portrayed as suffering from depression.
Taylor Hillridge's symptoms of depression include sorrow, as she feels hollow and helpless as she is bullied and receives a lot of negative remarks. Taylor hates going to school, and prefers to stay alone.Taylor losses interest in friends and family further depicting her depression. Taylor also shows a lot of pain and cries a lot indicating that the bullying has gotten to her and makes her depressed. Taylor consistently stays alone and reduces any physical interaction with anyone including her brother. She feels very lonely and calls her father informing him that she needs somebody verbalizing her depressed state and the effects of bullying. At the end of the movie, Taylor makes a video of her plans to commit suicide and posts it online. Guilt is also another symptom of depression Taylor presents when she blames herself for the bullying she receives; she states “I don’t know why everybody hates me so much! But, maybe I do, because now I have me too” (Cyber Bully). She expresses suicide thoughts from her talks stating, “I want to die” (Cyber Bully). She attempts suicide but is saved by her friend Samantha and her mother before she swallows the sleeping pills and is taken to the hospital. Suicidal thoughts and attempts is another sign of depression. Work CitedBiname, Charles. Cyber Bully. ABC Family, 2011.