The Problems with Society and the Media in Glorifying Mental Illness

It’s no secret that the media we consume and today’s society has the tendency to glorify and romanticise mental illness and the symptoms of people with serious illnesses, and has done for a long time. As a kid I remember one show that vividly portrayed mental illness, and the symptoms of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and even psychosis in a way that, not obviously glorified it, but made the show and the characters show their struggles in a way that was “quirky” and almost “cool”, and it’ll be no surprise to people of a similar age group to myself when I say this show was, Skins. In particular the characters of Cassie from season one and Effy from season three. (The less said about season 5 the better let’s be honest) 

In skins season one, Cassie, one of the main members of the group has very obvious struggles with an eating disorder, Anorexia. She is always seen as the “quirky” one, the quiet, away with the fairies character who because of this is quite loveable and almost ‘cute’, a famous phrase of her that was always layered over a grungy black and white image of hers was “I didn’t eat for three days so I could be lovely”, that circulated the tumblr era for years. It was my first experience of “pro-ana” media growing up, and as someone who also suffered with anorexia at a young age in her teens, she was almost an idol to me, a way of me seeing I could be loved and “lovely” if I also didn’t eat. The lack of recovery or serious professional intervention storyline with Cassie is a poignant reason this show was so toxic, it enforced the sadly truthful portrayal that not many people with an eating disorder fully recover or receive truly impacting treatment in their care. In season three, Tony’s younger sister Effy and her friendship group become the focus of the show and as the series goes on it becomes evident that Effy is struggling with manic depression and after attempting suicide and leaving psychiatric inpatient care is shown to be in a strict recovery regime. My biggest annoyances with the Effy storyline is she is seen to be more loveable when she is unwell, and is deemed interesting and desirable to men who wish to “fix her” in a cutesy romantic manner. 

Speaking of skins and the era of tumblr blogs, tumblr and social media’s in general have always been a toxic wasteland for glorifying mental health conditions and symptoms. With pro-ana accounts (accounts that show images of extremely skinny bodies or quotes that encourage starvation etc) and images of self harm rife back in the day it’s no surprise I was myself led into the life of self harming and disordered thoughts around eating in order to feel “beautiful” and “worthy”. 

Although it is a positive thing that mental illness is being portrayed more often in the media, and can be argued that it brings more awareness to debilitating conditions and reduces the stigma of opening up, there is also a downside. How many times have you opened up about your condition or illness and the symptoms you present with to be greeted with the painfully annoying response “oh I’m a bit like that!!”. Personally I’ve received this more times than I care to admit and have to stop myself from putting my head through a brick wall each time. Because of people realising how common mental illness is, some people seem to almost cling onto it and think well maybe that’s me? And of course, that can be a good thing too, it may help people realise their symptoms and the underlying cause of them, after all that’s how I realising I had bpd and autism. But it can also mean that people take very normal human traits and assume they have a mental illness. 

For example, everyone feels and gets nervous, job interviews, speaking in front of crowds, first day at a new job, you name it, nearly everyone will feel anxious about this. After all, anxiety is an emotion that is perfectly normal to feel. But where people go wrong is assuming that they therefore have an anxiety disorder because of their very normal experiences with anxiety. Anxiety becomes a problem and a disorder when the symptoms start to cause serious distress, discomfort or disrupts your ability to do everyday activities. So let’s say two people have to speak separately in front of a crowd, and are both understandably anxious about having to do this. The individual who is anxious may have sweaty palms, worry that they will forget what they have to say and think of the worse situation, but they take themselves on stage, speak to everyone, come off stage and move on with their day. Whereas the individual with an anxiety disorder may experience the same symptoms, but instead of going on stage anyway, they may have a panic attack or begin to hyperventilate and be so anxious that they are unable to go ahead with their speech and have to cancel last minute. Where both individuals experience symptoms of anxiety, only one of them is impacted in a way that affects their daily life and abilities. 

When mental illnesses are portrayed in film and TV, we usually see a very dramatised portrayal to make for a more interesting watch. This can also lead to false assumptions on mental illness, and believe that everyone with that condition acts that way. This can be especially prominent with borderline personality disorder, psychosis, schizophrenia and other conditions. It is a well renowned stigma and stereotype that individuals with bpd are manipulative, expert liars and overall bad people, which of course is not true. In many portrayals of bpd in the media, it is someone who manipulates and lies their way out of trouble, or the very common “psycho ex girlfriend” trope, where the traits of abandonment issues, extreme emotions, suicidal tendencies and others  commonly associated with bpd are used to make us appear to be crazy, a nuisance or a problem. 

This is also a prevalent issue with other conditions of course, autism for example is a common one, with characters like Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory, Forrest Gump, Sam from Atypical and many others, which further enhances the problem with females and falling through the cracks of the diagnosis criteria for autism. These characters make people assume that you cannot be autistic unless it is extremely obvious in the way you speak and act, because not many producers and directors see a female with autism who is visibly “normal” and who masks their autism so well as a, well, boring character. It is much easier for them to cast a neurotypical male and have them act out stereotypical autistic traits such as not understanding sarcasm, being blunt and to the point without much empathy or interest in others emotions, rigid and black and white thinking, obsessions with specific objects (fucking tRaInS) and a general “awkwardness” about them. 

Don’t get me wrong, mental illness can be portrayed positively in the media, and there are positive examples of those with influence speaking out, such as Demi Lovato and her openness about her struggles with bipolar, addiction and bulimia, or Carrie Fisher and Stephen Fry, both also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Chrissy Tiegan advocates for her struggles with post partum depression, Lady Gaga has also openly discussed her experience with PTSD following her rape ordeal when she was 19. These people can often be the butt of jokes and used as comical anecdotes in film and TV (e.g Britney Spears very public breakdown, Lindsay Lohan and her substance misuse addiction etc) but it’s important to remember their bravery in opening themselves and their very vulnerable personal lives and struggles to the public eye, something many of us struggle to even tell our own families about. But despite this, mental illness is way too often either romanticised to be cute, quirky and different and funny personalities, or even worse, demonised to the public eye that further enforces stigma and shame - a prime example is white terrorists, where instead of just outright calling them what they are, terrorists and murderers, they are named by their illness or categorised as mentally unwell, schizophrenic, or psychotic. But that’s a whole other post. 

I guess the moral of this almost ranting post, is yes use mental illness in the media to encourage you to educate yourself and further your knowledge on mental health conditions, but don’t assume the life that one character portrays is the same for everyone with the same diagnosis, or assume that someone in your real life can’t possibly have that illness because they live a starkly contrasted lifestyle to the character on your screen. Essentially, take tv shows and films with a pinch of salt and use your own knowledge and education to help others to not make this mistake either. 

Meg x