While reading “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse, the idea of depression and showing a different version of yourself was prominent to me. In the first chapter, Siddhartha was the light of his village and many children and kids looked up to him. However, he was not happy with himself for whatever reason. I see this similarly in everyday society as well. Many “popular” people may have tons of people trying to be their friend or tons of people trying to get on their good side. However, deep down inside they may be experiencing sadness and displeasure with themselves. This could be from school problems, family problems, or mental health problems.

Depression can come in many ways, shapes, and forms and different people will express it in different ways. One person may cry as a sign, another may have zero emotion every day when they are usually joyful, and many others usually mask it. They believe they need to mask it because they think they need to be a happiness source for others and they put other people’s problems before their own. This topic is personal to me because one of my best friends whose literally been there for since birth went through depression and I didn’t know because every time I saw him, he had a smile on his face and seemed happy. It just goes to show how easy it is to conceal your depression and how many people you know could have it.

The above video described exactly what depression is and the video below describes how you can help someone with depression.