On September 18th, 2016, Demetrius Harmon, known all over social media as the hilarious and kind @meechonmars, released a short film called "Be Happy".
The film stars Harmon as Meech, a young man suffering from depression, trying to find his way back to happiness. Harmon has spent some time these past couple of months promoting and creating this short to explain how depression works and to show others that they are not alone. Along with Harmon are four other men who play major roles in the film: His father, Depression, Anxiety, and Happiness.
Nathan Zed plays Meech's father, a man who believes his son's depression is irrelevant, which is shown when his character tells Meech to "stop acting white" and to "try focusing on not being another statistic." Meech's Anxiety is played Caleb City, who spends the entire film being frantic and constantly overthinking everything that happens, including whether or not Happiness will choose to stay for good this time around. Happiness is played by Caleon Fox. Happiness is constantly upbeat and optimistic the entire time, which helps Meech. However, he doesn't know for how long, since Happiness has a history of running in and out of Meech's life and though he states that he's staying, Depression immediately doubts that.
The role of Depression is played by Victor Pope Jr. Depression constantly fills Meech's head with negative thoughts about his physical appearance, the people in his life, and about how Happiness isn't real and won't stay long. The entire premise of the film shows Harmon going through the ups and downs of his Depression and even coming to terms with it and even confronting Depression and telling him that he now knows how to control it and will not let it consume him like he has in the past. Harmon's film ends with a photo collage of his followers and while the collage plays, Harmon is talking and explaining how it is okay to not be okay.
This short film is inspirational and I personally have watched it twice (so far) and it really does show what living with depression is like and how you can overcome it. I highly recommend watching the video if you or someone you know is currently battling Depression and need something to help you.
The link below is of Harmon's short film:
This link is censored so you can show it to children or in schools:
If you or someone you know is feeling incredibly depressed, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.
