Isolation plays an important part in mental health. Namely, isolation tends to exacerbate the effects of mental health issues. This can be seen in figure 3 where the protagonist has the opportunity to socialize with their friends. Yet when those opportunities are ignored, the protagonist's status will change, indicating worsening depression.
Isolation also perpetuates mental health issues by preventing people from recognizing their symptoms. Figure 5 demonstrates the inverse of this in depression quest, where the protagonist begins to learn the symptoms they are experiencing could be a result of depression. "The content that we encounter online can help facilitate powerful psychological realizations and collective change."Nair et al. and Depression Quest demonstrates this well with an internet friend of the protagonist being the one to alert them about their symptoms.At the same time, mental health issues can contribute to isolation too. This can also be seen in Depression Quest where the protagonist is surrounded by friends, peers and family yet feels isolated, afraid to tell others about their mental health, seen in figure 4.In this way, isolation and mental health issues become two parts of a cycle, each one perpetuating the other.
