Hot Topic: Stop Romanticizing Mental Illness

I've watched movies and read books where the characters are nearly perfect apart from their quirky mental illness. It seems to make the character more likeable and approachable—an inherent flaw that is still appealing enough to be loved by other characters as well as the audience. But more often than not, these characters become people we look up to, people we want to be, when in reality, we probably don't want to be them at all.

Let's get to it:

Mental illness is not beautiful. Someone with a mental illness can be beautiful, but the disease itself is silent torture, something no one would wish upon their worst enemy. Yet, when fictional characters admit to having a mental illness, it's considered a cute little quirk they have. Their ADHD exists only on the script, and their struggles are confined in the laughter of the pre-recorded soundtrack. Their OCD becomes a running joke. Their anxiety becomes a hilarious hyperbole.

They carry their illnesses with strength and a levelheadedness unheard of in Emotions Anonymous. These characters become the poster child for a specific illness, which tend to be so skewed to the point where they represent nothing at all.

But I understand that having a character with a mental illness seem to be the 'in' thing right now. Give Caroline Channing from Two Broke Girls histrionic personality disorder and she becomes a character to sympathize for. Add a touch of abandonment issues on top of narcissistic personality disorder to Barney Stinson and you've got a great protagonist. Give depression and suicidal tendencies to Uncle Frank Ginsberg from Little Miss Sunshine to stir the household up a bit. There's nothing wrong with having real problems in fictional characters, but I do have a problem when they make it look easy and beautiful.

Many characters show up and blatantly portray their illnesses in public. They become a person who has accepted themselves and their constant mental battle, and carry through the show, book, or film capable of going through a day without a breakdown or a fit. Once they do have a breakdown, the show makes such a big deal about it, as if that one fit is all he or she will ever experience, and the entire episode will revolve around said breakdown.

An entire season with one breakdown episode doesn't justify your character's mental illness. Take note from Lena Dunham's Girls, and realize that it's ongoing. Mental illness goes on at night before bed. In the morning after you wake up. On the bus on the way to work. It's not just a quirky trait writers can insert into a character to make them more appealing. It's like having a cancer-ridden patient but the chemo scenes show up twice during the entire season, and the internal complaints of his or her aching body are nonexistent. Don't just write about your character's mental illness and remind the audience every once in awhile. Make it real. Make it progress. Remind the audience all the time because it is an everyday struggle.

And to have a mentally ill character does not make them the target for romantic affection either. Mental illness isn't appealing. It's not a characteristic that's on the checklist of men or women. They are not traits you would want your partner to have, and yet nearly every mentally ill character will have a relationship with someone who loves them unconditionally despite their partner's condition.

I don't know many of my teenage male friends who would be able to tolerate a girl's clinical depression. "That bitch is crazy," is a common remark about a girl who skews only slightly from what is expected of them. Then imagine a girl who burns her arm for emotional release or one that uses the long way around because she's afraid of the cracks on the sidewalk. Imagine a girl who cries every night and has bottles of pills stashed in her bottom right drawer 'just in case'. Yet in fiction, these girls are fortunate enough to find a mature and level-headed man to help them through it all.

They make it look so easy.

Which is why mental illness as a whole has become so romanticized to the point where fictional characters fall head over heels over these ill men and women. Ask any depressed, anxiety-ridden, bipolar, borderline, antisocial, kleptomaniac, or narcissist about their romantic life, and I can assure you it is not as amazing as movies make it out to be. 

Mental illness is Girl, Interrupted. It's Black Swan. It's Requiem For a Dream. It's The Perks Of Being A Wallflower. It's The Silver Linings Playbook. It's Prozac Nation. It's A Beautiful Mind. It's not cool, nor funny, nor romantic. It is waking up and realizing your body has no purpose on Earth that day. It is the blanket of misery at 2 A.M when everyone's asleep and you're only guided by the thoughts that lead you to the edge of your window. It is kneeling over the toilet bowl, thinking about that sandwich you had. It is about seeing what's not there and knowing you've lost grip on reality. It is about hurting everyone, even yourself.

Fictional characters shouldn't just have mental health issues infused every now and then in order to 'deepen' the character. Mental illness isn't a quirky trait. It is not for writers to prettify and add glitter on. It is far from it. And if a writer wants to make a mentally ill character, make sure it's deeply rooted, ongoing, and for the love of god make that character struggle to find love, just like the rest of us.