The Issue with Mental Issues in Media

There's a serious problem in Hollywood. Well, more than one, but this one tends to go unacknowledged, and something needs to be done about it.

I'm talking about the depiction of mental illness and intellectual disabilities in film and television.

In the last few years, there have been attempts at bettering this, but they're few and far between and often fall into the same tropes that have plagued media for decades. Boiling it down, we have two general tropes for those suffering from a mental illness or an intellectual disability, and neither of them are okay. There's the happy go lucky Forrest Gump kind of character, and, more prominently, there's the villain.

While the first one mentioned is harmful in its own right, as not everyone who has a mental illness or an intellectual disability is a happy, insightful angel, the latter of the two is the one with which I have the most issue. Even a misunderstood, mildly relatable one, is still a problem.

Anthony Perkins in Psycho (1960)

Spanning as far back as some can remember, mental illness has been villainized for the sake of the plot.

Take, for example, Psycho. Norman Bates was a very harmful representation of people with schizophrenia. In fact, this movie was such a prominent impact on society that it led to the very incorrect and problematic assumption that all people suffering from schizophrenia have multiple personalities. Those are two different disorders. In addition, it spawned an onslaught of writers taking their own turn on this tired plot point. Psycho was one of the first, but certainly not the last to use schizophrenia as a device in someone's villainy. It brought negative attention to the condition, and in fact, resulted in many people choosing to not seek help for fear of the judgment they may face as a result of a diagnosis.

Countless films of the horror and thriller genres, in particular, have contributed to the hindering of those struggling seeking help for their conditions. Seeing harmful depictions of characters having mental disorders makes these people frightened to receive the same diagnosis. Fear of judgment from others, as well as their own problems with self-worth that are often detrimental, combine and result in someone spending years, sometimes their entire lives, in silent pain.

Taking into account that 1 in 4 people suffer from some form of mental illness, it's troubling that we only ever see characters in films who exhibit the most severe of traits and symptoms. Especially since that number would be higher if more people actually sought help for their troubles. But tracing back to deep-rooted problems with the depiction of these disorders in film and television, it's easy to see why so many are unwilling to seek treatment.

I've been there myself. For years, I was afraid to seek help for my severe depression for fear of what other mental health issues they may uncover as a result, and what others might think if I happened to receive the same diagnosis as a villain in a horror movie. But even after triumphing over my fears and seeking help, I then faced stigmatization and discrimination from others for having a name for my condition, all thanks to how movies and television have helped in creating an incorrect view of mental health.

Joaquin Phoenix in Joker (2019)

In the same breath, movies like Sybil and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are often overlooked in their mostly correct and progressive addressing of true mental conditions that need representation. In recent memory, films like Silver Linings Playbook and Joker have tried to address the stigmatism of mental disorders, as well, but they still fall short simply by putting so much emphasis on the symptoms. Still, at least they're trying. Unlike some others.

A new addition to the slough of problematic villainization of those struggling with mental illness is Old. Rufus Sewell's Charles is stigmatized and made into the horrific, scary antagonist, simply because he has schizophrenia. Again with the damn schizophrenia. It's not only getting old(sorry for the pun), but it's lacking in originality and needs to be dumped. And, might I add, a talented actor like Rufus Sewell deserved better, considering he was the only one in the entire film who gave a performance above that of someone babbling outlines on paper. Seeing him struggle and no one even trying to help him with his progressing disease made it all that much more apparent to me that it wasn't he who was the villain, but rather the others for ignoring him.

And I'm not the only one who thinks this, either. You can take a look at this list from The Integrative Life Center to see a more in-depth view on how some of these films inaccurately depicted those with mental health issues, as well as counteractive information to the contrary of popular beliefs, here.

Rufus Sewell in Old (2021). You deserved better than this, handsome.

Another problem with mental illness in Hollywood is how those real people behind the characters are also struggling with their own mental health issues, and the stigma attached to it. The environment for those with any form of mental health problem is beyond toxic, not only in work, but in being a public figure.

For example, Chris Rock recently revealed his diagnosis of Non-Verbal Learning Disorder. This isn't something new to him, just something newly named. Keep in mind that Chris Rock is still Chris Rock, despite this diagnosis. He still made you laugh on Saturday Night Live. He made your kids smile as the voice of Marty in Madagascar. He gave me, a diehard SAW fan, the gift of Spiral.

But after the release of the aforementioned film, I saw an entire group of people trash him, using his diagnosis as a way to attack him with derogatory terminology. All because they didn't like Spiral. Really? Taking into account how brave Chris Rock was to come forward with his diagnosis, despite knowing the repercussions he could face in the form of discrimination from peers and fans alike, I have nothing but praise for him. And if you have to attack someone's mental health as a way of making yourself feel better for not liking a movie they made, then who's more disturbed in that situation?

Chris Rock in Spiral (2021)

The thing is, mental illness is not a personality trait. It doesn't always mean we aren't capable of normal functionality, though it's okay if it does mean that for some. We're not an entirely different breed of humans just because we have a mental health disorder.

People with autism don't need to say they have autism just for the world to understand them, it's just a part of who they are. It doesn't need to be acknowledged at every turning point in their life, and in reality, it doesn't come up as often as you might think. Yes, there is discrimination against those who have a form of mental illness, but we live every day just as we have before receiving a diagnosis. Nothing changes for us, but people's perceptions of us change because there's a label, and they largely misunderstand what that diagnosis truly means.

This could be aided in the proper representation of these disorders in film and television, using viewership as a way of educating people about the realities of mental illness. But far too often these characters in media who are supposed to be about representing those with mental illness are made into nothing short of a zoo attraction, almost as if it's in an attempt to gain viewers, as their mental condition is constantly acknowledged and addressed in a way that borders on farcical. This same trope is used for LGBTQ+ characters, but that's a subject for another article.

How about we start having characters that represent everyone and act like normal people? Instead of constantly acknowledging it through dialogue, why don't we show it instead? Show characters from all walks of life and all varieties of mental illnesses. We're people, too. And for the love of God, stop using stereotypes as a way to come up with a villain. If you have to rely on schizophrenia to have an antagonist, then you obviously need to go back to creativity school.

Having a mental illness does not make you weak or fragile. It doesn't make you insane or violent, either. These harmful stereotypes need to stop. Now.

If you feel you may need help, or just want to take a look at the variety of resources available for those with mental health issues, you can check out the National Institute for Mental Health here.