Mental Health In Entertainment

Not everything that is portrayed in the media is true to real life. It’s far from it. They make it seem like it’s an easy fix. Go into treatment and be healed. As much as people want to represent mental health and addiction, it doesn’t come off as helpful or inspiring. There’s so much more to it than just saying that a character is struggling with mental health.

Film and television portrayals of severe mental health problems tend to be wildly inaccurate. And they often present a falsely sanitized or romanticized view of mental illnesses. For instance, viewers do not get to witness how incapacitating it can be to suffer from prolonged bouts of depression and/or anxiety.

A lot of the time, when someone is playing a character who is struggling, they will be over dramatic or not show enough of the actual struggle of dealing with mental health. I find that they do the bare minimum, only showing us the basics of a disorder. Not showing us how the people around them deal with such disorders or its shown in just a single episode, never to be talked about again.

It feels forced. As much as people want to talk about it, there’s never enough research or experience to deal with mental health issues in entertainment. Unless you experience or know someone that deals with mental health, it’s hard to portray someone that is going through it.

Sometimes they will overuse the same mental health disorders, and they will show the same symptoms, same treatment options or have a one and done storyline where once a character admits to struggling with mental health, they shrug it off and then they are automatically better now that it’s out in the open. That’s not how it works. You got to put in the work, show that the character is trying to get better.

Showing diversity in having characters with different problems and struggles and not following through with treatment and showing that people can get help is something that doesn’t make someone with has a mental health disorder feel good about having something. They want to be able to look at someone and feel inspired and encouraged. They don’t want to feel like they are being overlooked by having storylines that are rushed.

With shows constantly being produced and have a lot of the same storylines, it’s hard to keep up with what’s been done. They don’t have anything to say, and they are relaying on other shows to come up with ideas.

If they want to represent mental health, they should really focus on storylines that are based on mental health and not use it as an excuse for someone’s behavior. Show the progression of mental health, show the ups and downs, the good and the bad. Don’t have it be in one episode. Have it be a series long struggle. Show that a character can overcome their struggle, only to have them relapse. Take your time in showing what happens when someone is having a low or high moment in life. Show that it gets better.

Don’t write what you don’t know. Talk to people, get information, do your research, be prepared.