Romanticizing Mental Illnesses Feeds Mental Health Stigma

@Diana: you seriously need to chill. Your interpretation of this article was so far off the mark that it had nothing to do with the topic at all. The media, especially social media memes, along with all the sitcoms, "reality" shows, and police dramas, not to mention talk show hosts and politicians, have turned mental illness into a status symbol, publicity device, revenue generator, and yet another false fear, respectively. That's what this is saying. Nowhere did the author say, or even suggest, that people suffering from mental illness shouldn't write about it. You took the article as a personal attack. Perhaps you might want to consider discussing that with your psychiatrist.

Indeed, the first commenter completely misunderstood the entire meaning of the article.
Popular media, including social media, have romanticized a chosen few -safe - mental illnesses to glorify, while demonizing the rest of us. Every time we have a mass shooting, all the politicians and news personalities start throwing around "mental illness," implying that all these mass shootings are the handiwork of dangerous mentally ill people.
I also have personal experience with this particular stigma. A couple of years ago my daughter was looking for a roommate and found someone who seemed to be the perfect candidate. They apparently hit it off so well that they even went out to lunch a couple of times during the process of getting to know each other. At one such lunch, this girl mentioned that she was being treated for depression, and unfortunately my daughter responded in kind with the information that she has Bipolar disorder. Th next day, the girl called to tell her she'd decided not to move in because it was "just too big of a risk." My daugh term was cru d hed, and I'm sure you can imagine what that did to her self esteem.
It's also true what another poster mentioned about being made the butt of jokes. I myself am so sick of hearing about how "oh, she's so bipolar," or a Facebook picture of a sex bomb blonde wearing nothing but a t-shirt, describing herself as saucy, independent, and "a little bit bipolar." I actually got into an argument on that one when I asked whether they would think it acceptable to substitute "diabetic," or make jokes about a child with cancer or someone struggling with heart or kidney disease. Iqas, of course, ripped to shreds for not being able to take a joke. The bottom line isc people may desire the title of the latest "hip" mental illness, but they want nothing to do with the real thing, and the real people who have to deal with it.

One of the things that bothers me most about the romanticization of mental illness is that depression and generalized anxiety, though hey are definitely still very misunderstood, are so heavily focused on while many other disorders are completely ignored or looked down on. It is popularly considered to be some kind of "beautiful struggle" if you suffer from depression and anxiety (which is not how it should be viewed), but if you're living with any other mental illnesses you're either the butt of a joke (OCD really comes to mind for me here because I have a pretty severe case of it, and people have made fun of my rituals) or you're viewed as dangerous or weird, etc. There are such a harmful misconceptions about mental illness, especially that depression is the only cause of suicide. Really, I think all mental disorders need to be better understood so we can get the help we need, and if you want to "romanticize" your own experiences to help you cope, like another comment mentioned, I think that's great (I'm an artist and I draw, paint, write poetry, etc. about my life with OCD and bipolar disorder), but I do think this romantic portrayal in media generally does far more harm than good. It spreads ignorance and diminishes real people's experiences. I'm glad you wrote this article and that people are realizing that we need to change this.

Hi Laura Barton,
I found your post on romanticizing mental illness to be quite thought provoking and moving. I personally have never struggled with long term depression but my mother was diagnosed and prescribed medications to treat her severe depression. My mother has since passed away, not due to depression, but your article made me wonder how much outside influence did my mother receive prior to making the decision to use anti-depressants. Recently I have had multiple experiences with multiple populations of mental illness during my current time in school for Occupational Therapy Assistant. Being an OTA student has made me more aware of my own stigmas and misinterpretations of mental illness. Having these experiences has also made me more aware of how skewed the idea of mental illness really is in America and that it is not a thing to be glamorized. Mental illness should be something that is acknowledged for what it is so that adequate care and perceptions can be made. I believe you have made a profound point in the area of the fad of having depression or other mental illness. I can only speculate at this point but I think I can be sure that, in some form or another, my mother was swayed, however slightly, by mass media and perceived social norms. It has become such a prevalent thing in our society that depression is so common place you can’t watch TV for more than a few minutes without seeing an ad for depression medication that instead of providing help to someone in need only, as you said, romanticizes the idea of mental illness. I also wonder how much of mental illness, especially depression, is either over diagnosed, over medicated, or could be handled without the need of medication with services such as Occupational Therapy. This is obviously a very personal topic to me but it is also a very serious topic that should be talked more about. I believe more advocacy should be done like you are doing to shed light on the misinterpretations of mental illness in all forms.
My regards,
Wesley

Honestly I think this is a load of crap. I was actually just looking for somewhere to post a piece I just wrote in the middle of the night while in the middle of what my psychiatrist likes to call an "episode". Yeah that's right, my psychiatrist. So I got the help and I can lecture you for hours on "what I really have going on" in terms that are seeing it like it really is...but writing calmed me down, writing lets it out. It's not romantic, I'm sure as all get out no hero, but what I write about how I feel helps me, and sometimes it helps others just to know someone else feels the same. Apparently you don't. I don't mean to attack but this post is bull and some of the stuff you said is sometimes exactly how I feel. Granted I'm a little more crazy than just depression, but depression is part of it. I don't think telling people they shouldn't find creative and artistic ways to express and release is any kind of helpful to anyone