Depression is a distraught housewife with smudged mascara tears streaming down her cheeks as she screams melodramatically in the corner. Mania manifests itself in an enraged assassin as millions of voices ring out in her head, coercing her to kill her cheating husband.
That’s right, perhaps for our entertainment or simply to hold sensational value, the media insists that mental illness is synonymous to soap-opera madness. After all, mental health facilities are the centres of evil in our universe, where the devil is exorcised from patients after dunking them in tubs of cold water. Sadly, this gross misrepresentation is far from the truth, and it lays the foundation for stereotypes in society.
Teenagers all over the world face a confusing double standard while working through their issues, as they find that the glamorised crazy of Harley Quinn and the Joker does not apply to them. Furthermore, the blatantly false representation of psychiatric hospitals as a hub for harm in horror movies instils fear in the minds of those who require intensive care.
Romantic comedies that portray falling in love as the magic fix for the protagonist’s depression exacerbate the myth that mental illnesses have a single cause and cure. Romanticizing mental illnesses in this manner often downplays their seriousness, leading parents to label their children as “going through a phase” or “attention-seeking” if they request to see a therapist.
Renowned magazines often idealize eating disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder, since selling unhealthy fixations and insecurities to impressionable teenagers is profitable. For years, magazines have commended ridiculous strategies like eating naked on a weighing scale to obsessively monitor tummy size.
Raising awareness amongst people and erasing the stigma around conversation are commonly advocated solutions to this issue of misrepresentation. However, our society is more than justified in demanding a more realistic media depiction of mental illness in addition to these strategies.
Recently, multiple films have begun to represent treatment in a positive light. Some criticize such movies, such as ‘Dear Zindagi’, for painting a rosy picture of therapy. However, the messages that these kinds of movies send is a step in the right direction. While the portrayal of therapy as playing kabaddi on a beach with Shah Rukh Khan is slightly unrealistic, it combats prejudice. It may slightly exaggerate the benefits of therapy by presenting it as an overly positive experience but, in my opinion, it serves the purpose of incentivizing people to seek help.
While we must speak up for the change we wish to see, we must also recognize that everybody’s idea of perfect representation is different. Instead of demanding a specific image to represent mental health, we should focus on the message that any kind of representation sends. Let’s make a positive change.
