TLC has joined Janssen and other leading voices in mental health and LGBTQ+ advocacy to launch Depression Looks Like Me, a campaign aimed at normalizing the conversation about depression across our community and empowering people to seek help. Depression Looks Like Me offers a safe space to read personal stories from those within the LGBTQ+ community with lived experiences with depression, provides culturally competent resources, and highlights the different facets of depression, all in one place: www.DepressionLooksLikeMe.com.
At the heart of the campaign are impactful quotes and stories to help individuals connect through their shared mental health experiences in ways that offer perspective and create a sense of community.
“Living with depression can make it hard to find a safe space or someone with whom you feel you can confide in. If you do not feel yourself represented, it can be even more challenging to see how you yourself fit in or figure out what you can do to take action,” said campaign partner Ren Fernandez-Kim, who lives with depression. “As a nonbinary, mixed race person, I often felt stuck and overlooked, despite my desire to heal. Through communities like Depression Looks Like Me, we can come together to lift one another up. I find beauty in knowing I am not alone.”
Members of the LGBTQ+ community are disproportionately affected by depression, with research showing that LGBTQ+ adults are three times as likely to have mental health conditions as heterosexual adults and 2.5 times more likely to use mental health services than cisgender heterosexual adults. Finding a way through the stigma and pain associated with depression can be daunting. It’s important to understand that depression is an illness like any physical ailment that needs and deserves adequate attention and care.
Depression Looks Like Me provides carefully curated resources, including directories for LGBTQ+-friendly healthcare professionals and trained counselors. Information about depression, available treatment options, and mental health resources for transgender and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) patients are also available.
It is our hope that Depression Looks Like Me provides a path forward for those struggling to find adequate, culturally competent resources and appropriate treatment options. Depression Looks Like Me was created by and for the LGBTQ+ community in partnership with Janssen, TLC and other partners including the National Coalition for LGBTQ Health, Mental Health America (MHA), SAGE, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM).
We believe everyone deserves to be seen, heard and feel empowered to ask for help. Together, we can show others what depression truly looks like. Join the Depression Looks Like Me community and help us encourage others to connect through shared experiences, so those living with hard-to-treat depression know they are not alone.
If you’re interested in getting involved and sharing your story, you can here.
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