It starts with My Mental Health, which helps one see clearly the folly of not closely examining misconceptions about mental illness.
Forget the movies: they're not accurate in depicting anything but sometimes overdramatize mental illness without stopping to breathe life into a person who suffers.
Though there are films in recent times which depict people suffering from such illnesses, they don't usually deal with reality honestly.
Though Wikipedia provides a list of movies with a psychiatric illness as a theme, it would take much time to view these movies objectively and develop a respect for people suffering a mental illness.
So in essence, all pop culture does is pick a mental illness, use its worst aspects to dramatize a convincing portrayal of a mental health client, and then let the viewer figure out if they can spot a person suffering from a mental health issue.
FWIW that's a pretty shabby way to treat mental illness and people who suffer from it.
Anyway, I am going to examine My Mental Health with a calm and respectful look.
People suffer mental health issues, often with a lot of support and loving care.
Yet it is not a big deal, and shouldn't be.
4 comments:
My Mental Health dispells two myths about mental illness: that culture, social status, and earning income determine having one; and that only certain types of people get it.
In the first ad, it's obvious that social status and income does not prevent mental illness.
In the second ad, a person who has a mental illness, has a brain, a heart, can have any one of 9 skin colours, and uses a toothbrush.
The message from the both ads is that anyone can become temporarily mentally ill.
"A striking feature of the overwhelming majority of fictional (as distinct from documentary) film presentations of psychiatric disorders is their gross distortion of the phenomena ostensibly portrayed." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_illness_in_film
In truth, most people who have a mental illness don't act out their anger, fear, anxiety etc in dramatic ways, because it would draw attention to them.
Learn to accept yourself. It’s not always easy, but try not to compare yourself with other people. If you have suffered or do suffer from a mental illness, be careful about basing your self-acceptance or improvement on what others say about your condition. -- Mental Health Tipcs, http://www.mymentalhealth.ca/Default.aspx?tabid=841
The Measuring Your Mental Health section is very useful.
With it, you can gauge your mental health and take action accordingly.
http://www.mymentalhealth.ca/Home/Measure/tabid/842/Default.aspx
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