“It’s All In Your Mind”

“ Yung depression, gawa-gawa lang ng mga tao yan. Gawa nila sa sarili nila. ( Depression is just made up by people. [They] made it up within themselves.)” This line irked the ire of the nation. For days, it has been the talk of the town how Mr. Joey de Leon mocked a mentally ill participant in Eat Bulaga’s Sugod Bahay segment, and how Ms. Maine Mendoza defended the said participant who was suffering from depression. Mr. De Leon stated that depression and other mental illnesses were fictional products of the mind. While most millennials criticized him, there were still those who agreed with him. This is only one of the many examples of how media poorly portrayed mental illnesses.

There have been countless negative portrayals of mental illnesses in media. Some of these are :

- In the television drama Wonderland (2000), a man with schizophrenia goes on a shooting spree in Times Square and stabs a pregnant physician in the stomach .

- In a local news segment in Central Florida, a woman sets a dog on fire and the newscaster adds that she was recently depressed before moving to the next story .

- In the film Tinimbang Ka, Ngunit Kulang, the main character named Kuala was always taken advantage of by people and did everything that was asked of her despite her strong personality and ability to protect herself.

- In Dr. Jose Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere, Sisa was depicted as a mother who could no longer be a functioning member of society after she seemingly lost her children and began to stray from reality.

In Margarita Tartakovsky’s article, Media’s’ Damaging Depictions of Mental Illness, these portrayals lead the audience to create myths about mentally ill people, seeing as they mainly get their information on mental illnesses from mass media. Due to the media’s grim and inaccurate portrayals, people have even stated that they would rather say they have committed a crime rather than state that they have stayed at a psychiatric ward.

Veronica Anne Meer, a 24 year old who is currently working as an Administrative Aide in the Provincial Government of Isabela in Region 2, says that media plays a big role in creating stigmas about mental health issues due to misinterpretation and continuing to portray mentally ill characters without having enough knowledge regarding these issues. On the other hand, she also argues that it also plays a big role in addressing the issue by “shedding light on the issue which led to mental health being addressed as importantly as physical health” nowadays.

Andrew Severance, an 18-year old from Milford, Maine who has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety as early as 7 years old, said that “Although people nowadays seem more understanding when it comes to mental illnesses, there were still a lot that got their information about mental illnesses from Hollywood stereotypes.” These people would rarely take him seriously whenever he would raise the topic about his mental illness. Some even go so far as to say that mentally ill people are incompetent, dangerous, weak, ineffective, worthless, slovenly, and undeserving.

Some of the stigmas created by media are as follows:

- Mentally ill people are violent. Stereotypically, mentally ill people are made to be criminals when in fact, they are actually more likely to be victimized .In an article written by Ali Vitali for NBC News, it was reported that Donald Trump stated that the recent Texas Church Shooting did not happen because of the shooter’s access to’ guns but rather because the shooter was mentally ill. Trump continued to state that being mentally ill meant being evil when he addressed the recently occurred tragedy.

- They are unpredictable. Nearly half of a focused group cited unpredictability as a concern, fearing that they might go berserk and attack others.

- Mental illness is merely superficial. Severance stated that a lot of people used to tell him that he only needed to cheer up and that he was being melodramatic when he would enter a state of depression or when he would have anxiety attacks.

- They don’t get better. An example would be how the lead character in the television series, Monk, suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and is yet to improve, regardless of the continuous therapy sessions.

-Depression is due to a chemical imbalance. Many viewers believe that it can be cured with the use of a certain drug that fixes a chemical imbalance . They believe that anti-depressants and anti-anxiety pills correct hormones in your body that cause depression and mental illnesses occur when some hormones seem to be lacking from your body.

-Mental illness is merely a phase. Due to films such as American Pie depicting substance abuse, alcoholism, depression, and impulsivity as normal, these behaviors have been branded as benchmarks of youth that need to be surpassed. Severance has been told before that his depression and anxiety was normal for his age and it would be something he would grow out of as he got older. He was also told that it was just a case of teenage angst or a result of a bad day.

-People with mental illness look different. Mentally ill people are usually portrayed to have disheveled hair, rumpled clothes , and crazy eyes to show them as insane, evil, or threatening Severance also stated that people would tell him that he didn’t seem to be the type to have depression because he was optimistic and outgoing.

Unfortunately, because of media’s inaccurate portrayal of mental illnesses, mentally ill people have also lost confidence in confiding in therapy due to the poorly shown image of psychiatrists in media. In Dr. Schneider’s study entitled “The Theory and Practice of Movie Psychology” they are characterized to either: (a) be disturbed with the tendency to use dangerous treatments to abuse patients ; (b) be crazier than patients with the use of impractical to wacky treatments; or (c) breach, or lack, ethical boundaries .

Meer also states that aside from media’s portrayal of psychiatrists, most mentally ill people are also ashamed to seek professional help due to the traditional way of thinking that one should only seek professional help if one’s physical health is abnormal. She also states that the other reasons may be due to the fear of being judged with stigmas that the media has “planted in the minds” of viewers, and the fact that treatment is costly and a fairly long process that may take up to years to finish.

Fortunately though, there has been an effort by the media to make humanized representations of mental illnesses such as Carrie Mathison from the television drama/thriller series Homeland, Dora from the movie Kimmy Dora, Irene from the film Mga Anino ng Kahapon, Josh Nash from the film A Beautiful Mind, Pat Solatano from the film Silver Linings Playbook, and Ronald from the movie The Trial. Talk shows, such as Voices of an Illness by Bill Lichtenstein or Oprah, that feature everyday people discussing their illnesses and recovery or psychological states of survivors in disasters are told have helped in developing awareness in millenials, making them more sensitive to the need to promote and protect mental health importance.

Meer added that people with mental illnesses should be given enough support and attention as mental illnesses can become deadly if not given enough importance. She also finds it a relief that in recent years, the Philippines has managed to put up different shelters and centers filled with mental health specialists that cater to the needs of the mentally ill.

Mental illnesses should be taken more seriously and should be portrayed more accurately in the media industry. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental illnesses, feel free to contact HOPELINE, the national suicide prevention hotline, at (02) 804-4677, 0917-558-4673, or 2919.