Maya’s suicide attempt did not end in death, so her recovery took a more prominent role compared to the reactions of others. Still, the same message was shown throughout her recovery. She eventually agreed to receive treatment for her depression, and the people in her life showed her that they cared about her.   

For Cam and Maya, the stigma around mental illness makes them feel weak. Admitting their problems would mean defeat, so they struggle in silence. Many students around the characters find it difficult to understand depression, and the topic is almost taboo. This is especially true for Claude’s story. The negative stigma makes them too uncomfortable and afraid to confront or comfort Claude, Cam, or Maya. In the end, this hurts everyone and contributes to their suicide attempts. This portrayal of stigma shows the audience exactly what not to do when someone in their life is struggling. Instead, it shows that reaching out could make a difference. 

Cam and Maya’s depictions of depression and suicide are more realistic than Claude's. Their MDD symptoms are clearly shown, and their storylines are given enough time to be well-paced and satisfying. Cam loses interest in school, hockey, and friendships. He struggles to keep up his grades and has difficulty focusing on his studies. He begins self-harming and thinking about suicide. He almost always experiences a depressed mood and often feels worthless or guilty for letting his team down. 

He clearly fulfills Criterion A for MDD, and other disorders can be ruled out, as he experiences no symptoms of mania, substance use, or psychotic disorders. Instead of telling the audience that Cam had depression, they show it in every scene he was in. Over the course of the season, his symptoms worsened, and viewers could tell that he was struggling. This creates a sense of sympathy for Cam, and it allows viewers to see his perspective. Instead of a villain, he is a kid without the resources needed to treat his mental illness.  

Maya’s recovery offers a new perspective. As with Cam, she experiences many symptoms of MDD including depressed mood, loss of pleasure, frequent thoughts of death, fatigue, loss of appetite and weight, and inability to concentrate. Until this point, Maya had always been a musician, but as depression enters her life she withdraws from her band, songwriting, and playing in general. Her appetite, weight, and grades drop rapidly, and she skips class and assignments. She fantasizes about death, going as far as to fake her own death for a photoshoot. Her friends worry about her safety, but she lashes out at them in response.  

One of the most impactful scenes in Maya’s storyline takes place at a doctor’s visit. Maya asks her doctor for a magic pill that will make everything better, and she tells her that depression is a lifelong battle. She suggests therapy, which Maya says will not work because in the past it did not. This interaction shows how stigma impacts Maya. She refuses treatment and later argues with her mom because she does not see her mental illness as a real issue. 

After being saved from her attempt, Maya returns to a therapist, who acts as a teacher for viewers. She explains what depression is and how it impacts Maya’s life. Maya finds herself again, showing viewers struggling with depression that recovery is possible. This last story is most successful in articulating the message that mental illness is difficult to live with, but possible to survive. It shows that there are people who care, which is exactly what Schuyler set out to achieve. 

The special first aired in 1991, and it was one of the more extreme situations shown on Degrassi at this point. Unfortunately, in the little time given to Claude’s story, the creators of the show portray him as a selfish coward for his actions. It is insinuated that Claude had been suffering from depression, but this is not shown to the audience. The only potential symptom for MDD shown is depressed mood. Claude is often frowning, and he is extremely lonely. They fail to properly address the struggles he endured to cause him to take his own life. The result is that audiences only see that Claude is dead and everyone is upset about it. It paints him as the villain in a story that should have been about the struggles of with mental illness. 

One reason for these shortcomings is the stigma surrounding depression and suicide. Pescosolido et al. (2021) examined trends in public perception of mentally ill individuals from 1996 to 2018 to find that there has been a significant decrease in public stigma surrounding depression in that time. They found that in 1996, four years after the storyline aired, people were less aware of the etiology of depression and less likely to work with, marry, or spend time with those suffering from depression than in 2018. This stigma meant that before this special, suicide had not often been portrayed in media for younger audiences. 

Other issues presented throughout these representations include poor acting and Maya's fast recovery. Degrassi has a place in the hearts of many who grew up watching it, but bad acting is a staple of the show. There are countless compilation videos online highlighting this issue, and it does make the depression and suicide storylines less believable. As for Maya's recovery, she was shown to be back to normal in only a few episodes, which is an unrealistic timeline for many in MDD recovery. According to Hooley et al. (2020), treating depression requires either specialized psychotherapy, sustained use of antidepressant medicine, or a combination of both over a prolonged period of time (p. 241-244). This speedy recovery could be related to the show's impending cancelation. It allowed Maya's character to complete her story at the cost of realism. 

Hooley, J. M.,  Nock, M. K., & Butcher, J. N. (2020). Abnormal Psychology (18th ed). Pearson Education. 

Pescosolido B. A., Halpern-Manners A., Luo L., Perry B. (2021). Trends in public stigma of mental illness in the US, 

1996-2018. JAMA Netw Open, 4(12). doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.40202 

Schuyler, L. & Hood, K. (1989-1991). Degrassi High. Playing With Time, Inc. 

Schuyler, L., Stohn, S., Glinski, S., & Huether, M. (Executive Producer). (2016-2017). Degrassi: Next Class. DHX Media. 

Schuyler, L., Stohn, S., Martin, A., Hurst, J., Yorke, B., Snow, S., Glinski, S. (2001-2015). Degrassi: The Next Generation. Echo Bridge Entertainment.