Mental Illness Portrayed In The Media

The mass media is a powerful tool to help us shape our perceptions of the society we live in. This is the same for the case of mental disorders. For most of us, we gather information about mental disorders mainly through the mass media and form our opinions (Slopen et al. 3). However, the media might not be a reliable source to make informed views especially when they often use stereotypes in their story telling. These stereotypes are generally wrong and create stigma around mental illnesses. Hence, the stigma of mental illnesses shaped by the media can be harmful to our society regardless of positive or negatives images portrayed.

In the recent years, criminals and violence are often linked with mental disorders in the media. Take the example

However, the media has sensationalised this factor so much that it led the audience to believe that mental illness is the only culprit. In the fictional realm of the media, the image of the mentally ill being dangerous to the society is perpetuated. It is reported that on prime time television, characters with mental disorders are portrayed as the most dangerous people in the general population with 60% of them showing to be criminals (Mental Health America). Heavy viewers are more exposed to these portrayals of mental illnesses and therefore more likely to believe in these messages. This is called Mean World Syndrome, when one believes that the world is a more dangerous place than it actually is (Ropeik). Similarly, a heavy media user might be led to believe that the mentally ill are violent and dangerous. However, this myth is not true. In fact, people with mental illnesses are more likely to be the victims of violence. A study found out that only 23.9% of 4,480 mentally ill adults had committed violent acts in the previous six months and most of these acts, 63.5% of them took place in residential settings. On the other hand, 30.9% of these participants admitted that they had been the

The place where this phenomenon occurs the most is Tumblr. This is alarming because Tumblr is one of the more popular social media platforms to the younger people. GlobalWebIndex reports that almost half, 46% of Tumblr users are 16 to 24 years old (Smith). Posts of low self-esteem quotes in black and white or texts written about mental illnesses are often accompanied with thousands of likes and reblogs. I get that these posts are the efforts to encourage people to be more open and accepting towards this controversial topic but it seems to backfire. Instead of raising awareness of these destructible illnesses, media users glamorise and deem mental illnesses as something beautiful. It is very frustrating to me to see posts on Tumblr or Instagram of razor blades with flowers or negative texts such as “ I don’t need you to make me feel bad about myself, I already did that.” Imagine what kind of messages will the young and impressionable will receive. The worse thing is that movies and television shows seem to lap up on the image of a broken girl who is fixed by the right boy. In American Horror Story, Violet Harmon is a girl who diagnosed with depression and is seen self-harming on many occasions. The show depicts an unhealthy co-dependent relationship between her and Tate Langdon. In one scene where she attempts to commit suicide, Tate finds her and is the only person she