Eeyore's Disorders In 'Winnie The Poh'

Research Activity 4: Major Depressive Order

All of the Winnie the Pooh characters depict different mental disorders with Winnie representing an eating disorder, Tigger representing attention-deficit disorder (ADHD), Rabbit representing obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Christopher Robin representing schizophrenia, Piglet representing an anxiety disorder, and Eeyore representing major depressive disorder. While all of the characters in Winnie the Pooh represent different mental disorders I want to focus on Eeyore’s disorder, major depressive disorder. Eeyore is a fictional pessimistic stuffed donkey from the Disney shows/books/movies ‘Winnie the Pooh’, who is brought to life through Christopher Robin’s imagination. Eeyore is depicted as sad,

Eeyore’s friends try to cheer him up, but Eeyore often is skeptical of his friend's plans, and doesn’t want to engage in social activities. Eeyore is an extreme pessimist, and cannot see a positive outlook on things, and as a result, complains about how bad life is. One cause of his depressive symptoms may be that his tail constantly falls off that he is fond of, which makes him self-conscience and destroyed his self-worth. There is not enough background information on Eeyore’s childhood to know if he suffered trauma that may have been a factor of his depression, but it is possible that a traums has exacerbated Eeyores’ depression. Eeyore is famous for quotes such as: “I was so upset I forgot to be happy”, “Could be worse, I don’t know how, but it could.”, and “Don’t worry about me… I’ll stay here and be miserable”. Eeyore shows clear signs of depression, but can he be cured?, that demonstrate his sad

Psychotherapy such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), or a type of psychotherapy that helps the patient “become aware of negative or inaccurate thinking”(mayoclinic.org) is typically paired with medication for the best results. CBT should help Eeyore evaluate negative thoughts as something he can control should help him develop a greater self-confidence and view the world with more optimism. Eeyore must come to the conclusion that if his tail falls off it does not make him any less desired by his friends and does not make him ugly or unworthy. Complications could arise with giving Eeyore medications do to the fact that he is a donkey, and antidepressants have not been tested on donkeys, and could therefore harm Eeyore, but CBT and other forms of psychoanalysis should be effective regardless of the fact he is a donkey considering he has the cognitive abilities of a human. Eeyore should be able to overcome his depression, as “around seventy percent of people recover within a year of receiving treatment, but around twelve percent still suffer from symptoms after five years