Depression does not discriminate in terms of age, sex, ethnicity, religion, or social economic status. As human beings, all are susceptible to acquiring a mental disorder in addition to other illnesses. Life sometimes can be overwhelming due to the stressful situations we face in our daily lives. Many people have a stereotypical image of depression, where they imagine the person crying all the time or wearing black attire, but for many people who suffer from depression describe it as "a constant feeling of being numb to emotions and life." Being depressed is adisequilibrium of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit) that can lead to death if left untreated. My creative reflection journal focused on the feeling and the appearance of the person. I decided to name my art project "I'm fine,"because I noticed that many people who suffer from depression pretend that they are fine, but in reality, it's the opposite. What they really want is help, someone to help them find a purpose in life. On my portrait, I drew a person with a sad countenance. It is a depiction of how I see them, even though they pretend to be fine, you can tell in their look how much they are suffering and that they are desperately in the need of help. Many of these people do not seek help because they are afraid of being judged. My heart breaks whenever I hear these patients saying, "I want to die, I have no reason to be here" or when they narrate to you how they tried to commit suicide. On my drawing, I decided to use:

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Pencil: because what I noticed on my patients was that they describe their lives as living in a world without color, everything is grey or dark.

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Light blue watercolor: represents their emotions, in which they begin to drown. I had the opportunity to hear some testimonies of patients describing the feeling of being drowned in emotions. Most of them say that they knew something was not okay with them because they started notice physical changes like sleeping more than usual, eating less, or having nointerest in daily activities. The light blue color also represents water because drowning in your emotions is akin to drowning in water.

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Dark blue watercolor: signifies the feeling of being hopeless and desolate. This color signifies a deep state of depression that can lead to self-harm or suicidal thoughts. Many of us have no idea what a person with depression goes through or whatthey have in their mind. While I was listening to the testimonies, it made me realize how lucky I am.

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Black watercolor: embodies death because when patients are in this state, they decide to commit suicide. They think that the best solution for their problems is to end their lives. Unfortunately, everyday people die from being in this state of depression. This can be a silent mental disorder that consumes you slowly until it carries you to death.

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Over all, I enjoy being at the HCPC because I had the opportunity to interact and listen to stories from different patients who suffer from depression and other mental disorders. I had no idea of what it meant to bedepressed until I listened to every patient's story. This clinical rotation helped me to be more aware of what is going on with apatient with depression and other mental disorders

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