The recent blockbuster hit, Avatar, has left some audience members feeling a little depressed or even contemplating suicide after watching the movie.

The madness began on websites that was dedicated to discussing the movie and people’s opinions on it. There has been numerous posts were people have stated feeling depressed after seeing the movie and some have even contemplating suicide. The website avatar-forums.com has had 52 pages of comments and the site is now offering “ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible”.

People have been becoming depressed after knowing their own reality and seeing the perfection and beauty of the planet Pandora. James Cameron message in the movie was that Earth was supposed to be just like Pandora except the humans ruined the Earth’s chances of becoming Pandora. Here is an example of the thousand of comments left on Avatar Forums, “when I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed…gray. It was like my whole life, everything I’ve done and worked for, lost its meaning. It just seems so….meaningless. I still don’t really see any reason to keep…doing things at all. I live in a dying world” (Buzz Gloss). People feel disgusted with their own human race that has prevented them from ever having a beautiful world like Pandora.

There has been a mixed response over the current chaos of Avatar Depression Syndrome. Some people found this whole issue absurd and think these people should realize it was just a movie. These people are either angry or slightly amused by this whole ordeal because they think these people are being extremely overdramatic and need to find happiness in their own lives instead of throwing away their lives over a simple movie.

Other people are quite concerned with this issue because they believe depression is serious disease no matter what. This depressed audience members are truly lost, hurting, and are in need of some help. The movie, Avatar, could be an outlet for them to escape their depression and leave this world. They are using Avatar as an excuse to allow themselves to release their built up sadness and become depressed. Others believe the movie Avatar could seriously be the reason for their depression because they cannot accept their reality and want to live in another kind of world.

 A few people are viewing this issue as an opportunity to recruit people to help save the environment. There is an environmental message within the movie Avatar and people want audience members to readjust their response to the movie and create motivation to help join environmental causes. People believe their depression will be solved if they put their energy towards cleaning and saving the environment. No matter what side someone takes, it cannot be denied that Avatar has received quite the amount of attention from its viewers and has had an interesting affect on people and their view’s of our society. 

Bell, Shannon. “Is Avatar Depression Syndrome Real?”. Rightpundits.com. Right Pundits, 12 January 2010. Web. 15 February 2010.

Lamar, Michelle. “’Avatar’ Fans Experience Depression, Suicidal Thoughts?”. Mygloss.com. Buzz Gloss, 11 January 2010. Web. 15 February 2010. 

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