Health Ministry slammed over its post on depression on twitter

A post describing "depression as a state of low mood" on the official twitter handle of the Health Ministry accompanied by a digital poster listing out activities to cope with it was slammed by Twitter users for "trivialising" the issue as some users termed the definition as "highly inaccurate".

A tweet posted on June 26 by the @MoHFW_INDIA, the official twitter handle of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, read, Depression is a state of low mood that affects a person's thought, behaviour, feeling & sense of well-being. One must take up activities that keep him or her boosted in order to cope with depression (sic).

It also posted a poster listing out activities such as following a routine like eating fruits, staying clean, going for walks, practising yoga, taking multi-vitamins, travelling and thinking positive.

However, the post invited a lot of flak from the followers with a psychiatrist tweeting,
"This tweet trivializes depression and makes it feel like it isn't an illness... (sic)."
A user named Aishwarya S said, "This is a highly inaccurate description of depression. #LetsTalk (sic)."
Seeking help in depression, which is life saving, is not a part of this, why? (sic)."
Another user Sudhir Kothari said, "Depression is a real illness, treatable and may sometimes lead to suicide if not treated. It's not a character flaw or something you can just ask the patient to snap out of or make her or him guilty of suffering from."