deal with depression in a healthy way is building connections through joining socially
meaningful groups, thereby breaking the glass walls for each other. As David Dodell-Fed-
er from University of Rochester writes, “When engaged in healthy social contact and
rewarding social relationships, we thrive; when socially isolated, we wither” (“Peering
into what goes awry in schizophrenia”).
According to Cruwys, developing social connectedness has been found effective in
reducing depression symptoms (2). Cruwys proposed using the Social Identity Approach
(SIA) as intervention for depression. SIA was not originally used to examine health
benefits of social connectedness, but was developed as a social-psychological theory to
look at relationships with the model of “self” (Cruwys 4).
The SIA needs three key premises. The first key premise is that the “sense of self”
includes both personal and social identities, meaning that people see the self both in terms
of interests different from other individuals, and in terms of interests of the group different
from other groups, so now, “the group becomes self” (Cruwys 4). The approach therefore
emphasizes reconstructing people’s self-concept through group connectedness, and then
impact their behavior (Cruwys 4). But is joining a meaningful social group enough? No.
The second premise is that self-concept is built through internalizing social life in the
group. This means that the objective experience of group membership is not enough, one
must subjectively perceive and identify with the group. It is the identification that is
crucial. The third premise is that the process of self-identification is responding to all the
variations in the world (Cruwys 6). For example, “self” is identified from what is “not
self,” and group is identified from what is “not us.” Through this comparison with other
people, the self-concept built is not stable characteristics, but “a potentially fluid process”
(Cruwys 6).
All three premises, identifying group as a self, perceiving and internalizing
self-concept in the group, and responding to variations in the social world are crucial in
building a self-concept. In Schrobsdorff’s article, Faith-Ann, who struggled with depres-
sion, anxiety, and self-harm behaviors, made a powerful project to escape the overwhelm-
ing negative feelings. In a teen program in Maine called Project Aware, she made a short
film about teen depression and anxiety. More than thirty teens were involved in the
project, forming a support team for each other (Schrobsdorff). This is a real-life example