Eeyore & Depression | Review #1

In an effort to bring back my time spent in my abnormal psych class, I'd lie to introduce you all to a small series of short media reviews! In these reviews I'll be going over series and how well they're characters depict associated mental disorders. By no means am I a professional or expert, but hopefully you can read along and see the characters in a new light.

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Today's review will be focused on the popular Winnie-the-Pooh series. The Winnie-the-Pooh series is about a small boy, named Christopher Robin, going on numerous adventures with his stuffed animals in the Hundred Acre Woods. Other than Christopher and Pooh bear, the other main characters and toys are Kanga, Tiger, Roo, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, and Eeyore. All of the Hundred Acre Woods residents have unique traits like Pooh’s naivety and slow-wits to Tiger’s exuberance. However, Eeyore the donkey will be the focus of this review.

Unlike the rest of the Hundred Acre Woods, Eeyore is uncharacteristically dreary and grey. He typically has a somber expression on his face and always talks rather slow and sluggishly. The Disney site itself even says “Gloomy Eeyore is not a fan of much, other than eating thistles, but his loyalty wins the hearts of his friends every time he loses his tail.” As a result, Eeyore is often believed to have Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) or Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD). However, outside of Eeyore’s low moods, he doesn’t fully qualify for either disorder.

For MDD, Eeyore displays symptoms of sad mood, however the only other symptoms he shows are slight psycho-motor retardation and loss of energy. Similarly, for PDD, he displays only symptoms of depressed mood and low energy. Eeyore doesn’t feel hopeless or worthless. In fact, he maintains regular activity and eating habits, especially with the pleasure he has eating his favorite thistle. Furthermore, Eeyore also continually builds his little house when ever it almost routinely falls to pieces and searches for his tail when he often loses it. Had he been truly suffering from MDD or PDD he’d be hopeless and give up rebuilding his house because it would inevitably fall once more or quit searching for his tail possibly thinking that he’d never find it, or it’d never stay in place properly. Nor does he have appetite, sleep, or concentration problems.

Eeyore is also quite sarcastic and is good for giving snarky remarks. Like “No brain at all, some of them [people], only grey fluff that’s blown into their heads by mistake, and they don’t think,” in regard to some of the other occupants of the Hundred Acre Woods. But I will admit that some of his comments can come off darker/ concerning like when Piglet found him to be wet. But the context impacts the interpretation a lot.

“Oh, Eeyore, you are wet!” said Piglet, feeling him.

Eeyore shook himself and asked somebody to explain to Piglet what happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time.”

Nonetheless, I don’t think Eeyore has Major Depressive Disorder or Persistent Depressive Disorder. He doesn’t meet the qualifications for either disorder because of his lack of the necessary symptoms. Since the child friendly nature of the Winnie-the-Pooh series does restrict just how far the writers could take his character without being a poor impact on children, I do believe that Eeyore’s character is a good representation of a person that might be more naturally low in energy and of a mild temperament. Not to mention events like losing his tail showing a further drop in his mood into an even more extreme gloom is a decent enough exposure for kids to sadness and seeing that it’s ok to be sad at times.