Depression Life Hacks

2016-2022

A social media project that uses the temporary nature of Instagram stories to create momentary instances of intimacy between the artist and viewer based on the artist’s experiences of PTSD and chronic depression since age 16. Depression Life Hacks reframes chronic mental illness not as something to be cured but rather something to be lived with. Part self-help, part relational exchange, and part social critique of the way in which late capitalism is not structured to accommodate mental illness and other forms of disability. I adopt the persona of a valley girl as both a pedagogical strategy and a critique of medical expertise. Depression Life Hacks has addressed over 60 topics related to the maintenance of life with chronic mental illness, and regularly attracts over 100 viewers per hack. Available on Instagram @depressionlifehacks.