I think images like the ones above show what media and the misconceptions society have of the mentally ill has done to the art of therapy. Sadly, since mental illness is seen as a joke a lot of people might think therapy and the therapists are jokes. People call therapists "shrinks" and make jokes about laying on a couch talking to a ceiling.
These are misconceptions that therapists need to keep in mind when meeting new clients. People coming into therapy have been affected by what the media says and what their friends say about mental illness and might be overly nervous or hesitant to come to therapy.
As therapist we need to be aware of the stigma surrounding mental illness and be sensitive to how people are feeling. We also need to be strong advocates of stopping the stigma. It starts with how we act, the comments we make, and how we treat people. The jokes about mental illness are not funny and we need to help put an end to them. We can have a big impact on reducing the stigma and helping people.
This personally effects me by making me want to take a stand against the stigma of mental illness. I have known some of the most wonderful people who suffer from mental illness and watching them struggle breaks my heart but watching them deal with the stigma is even worse. When you actually see mental illness take over someone you love or even yourself you realize that is not something that is entertaining. I know I would never want people to watch a show about a loved one struggling and it effects me by making me rethink certain shows and movies and why I think they are interesting. Am I watching to learn more about a disorder and how it manifests or am I watching for a quick laugh?
Having a mental illness is hard enough on somebody and the last thing they should worry about is people finding out and judging them. People are not ashamed of having cancer, a sore throat, a cold, or a broken leg so why should people have to hide a mental illness? I know I personally want to be someone that people are not afraid of or ashamed to tell that they have a mental disorder. Media makes mental illness a joke but because of that I want to show that not everyone agrees.
I can honestly say I used to be very guilty of using mental disorders as adjectives. I used to say I was bipolar whenever I was in a bad mood or if I was feeling upset I would say I was depressed. It is such an easy thing to do but that needs to be changed.
I may not be able to change what the media depicts about social media but I can start by changing myself. I no longer use mental disorders as adjectives and I try to educate others not to. As someone who wants to enter the world of counseling by changing myself I can help change others.
One way I checked to see how mental illness is depicted in society was to take a quick informal poll from my friends and family. Through Facebook I asked my friends and family, what are four-six words that come to mind when you think of mental illness. I took all the words they gave me and complied a list which I put into a word cloud generator to see which words were most frequent. The bigger the word the more often it appeared on the list.
As you can see through this word cloud that one of the most common words associated with mental illness for the people I asked was "homeless". That is a common misconception people. They have this mental image of a crazy person out on the streets who is homeless and delusional. This is not accurate. There are homeless people who are mentally ill but it is not everyone, not even a majority. Being homeless and being mentally ill are not mutually exclusive.
Along the same lines another way mental illness is seen in society is how people image people with different disorders. Most people have a stereotypical idea of what the mental illness looks like in someone. When you think of depression you think of someone laying in bed crying all day every day. When you think of an alcoholic you think of the drunk guy stumbling down the street but you might not think about the soccer mom who drinks 2 bottles of wine every night. Mental illness is depicted one way but manifest itself differently in everyone. The clip below is an example of this where people who have bipolar disorder discuss what they are not.
Sadly, mental illness in society is something that people feel they should be ashamed of. Many people never even realize how many people around them are suffering because those people will not open up for fear of being stigmatized. Mental illness has become a dirty word to some people and society would rather hide the problem than deal with it.
Mental illness has become a joke to some people in society. Shirts like this are made and people find it funny.
Another way mental illness is depicted in society is through media such as television and movies. The clips below show how some mental illnesses are being depicted.
This is a compilation of clips from the movie "The Benchwarmers" and it features the character Howie who has agoraphobia. As you can see by the clips agoraphobia is depicted as a comical illness that makes it hard for Howie to go out in sunlight. This is compared to actually agoraphobia which is not funny at all and causes major distress for people.
This is a documentary that follows a guy who has a very severe case of OCD when he sees an El Camino car. Since this is a real problem he has it shows how the OCD effects his life and causes him distress. How does this compare to the media depiction of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory and his OCD?
Media depicts mental illness as a something that is funny or entertaining to other people. Recently there has been an increase of shows that are based on mental illness or other problems people have. Just a few examples are Hoarders, True Life, Obsessed, My Strange Addiction, and various others. The media says that mental illnesses are something that people should marvel at and be entertained by. The last clip is from a how that tries to show the real side of mental disorders and how distressing they are to people. This media message that mental illness is a joke is very disturbing. The media says it is okay to laugh at and watch people who are different from us for our own personal amusement. Media says these people are different, let's watch them and see how "strange" they act. Despite what media says mental illness is not something we should mock or find humor in.
Aside from just movies and television shows, mental illness can be seen through quotes and images on Pinterest and even on Twitter and Facebook. People will post statuses on Facebook about how depressed they are, how their OCD is showing, or how bi-polar their significant other is acting. Media has made it okay to use mental illnesses as adjectives to describe people. There are numerous posts that show something in the picture being out of order and the caption is about how it is killing their OCD senses. Below are just some pictures that show how else society and media see mental illness.
