by Julia Cai

Created on: May 23, 2008

"I took steps forward. It was easy Below me there were three lanes of traffic; I cleared the first, [and] got halfway over the second I moved past the second lane and kept my eyes on the horizon. I didn't move my eyes from it for the last lane, shifting my hands in front of one another in a tight rhythm. I came to the edge of the bridge and was sort of surprised how there wasn't any fence. There wasn't anything to keep you from falling off, just your hands and your will. I gripped the bars at either side and then sprung my hands open and spread my arms wide and felt the wind whip and tug at me as I leaned myself over the water" (Vizzini 88-9). Exhilaration consumes the audience as the life of Craig Gilner comes crashing down. This teenage character of It's Kind of a Funny Story shapes the blatant reality that depression suppresses rationality and happiness. Although he isolates himself in the feeling of loneliness, Craig is only one of the thirty-two million others in the United States ("Understanding Depression") plagued with depression. Ned Vizzini, the author of It's Kind of a Funny Story, accurately portrays the emotional turmoil and details of clinical depression through the eyes of Craig Gilner.

Clinical depression "refers both to a serious mental disorder and to a normal mood involving sadness that all people occasionally experience. The duration and grouping of symptoms distinguishes depression as a mental disorder from occasional feelings of sadness" (Bruce). As the story begins, Craig considers his feelings of sadness to simply be "just part of growing up" (Vizzini 102). But, as the story unravels, he slowly recognizes that his actions and feelings are not the same as those of his friends. His daily life experiences generate feelings of sadness and uselessness rather than satisfaction. Like Craig, many other people are influenced by depression. It is one of the main leading sources of disability in the United States ("Additional Statistics and Information"), affecting at least sixteen percent of all Americans in their lifetime ("Who Gets Depression?"), which is approximately nineteen million people. Since it affects so many lives, it is often referred to as the "common cold" of all mental illnesses.

Widespread depression can be attributed to its variety of forms. Clinical psychologists have determined there are varying differences in each case of depression; the difference can be as simple as having a couple symptoms to an intense and long period of

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