Does media influence your perceptions of the mentally ill?

Not really. I know too many people who have mental illness to let a TV show really influence it. I think the most negative thing happening right now in the media regarding mental illness is the reporting of mass shootings and the political debate of gun control that is always brought into the discussion. The right seems hell bent on really focusing on mental illness being the cause and not guns, and whatever people think about guns, it still keeps the conversation about how these “crazy” people need to be spotted early before they snap. I have a feeling too many people kind of link upmalmost any mental illness to the possibility of criminal behavior. That is the biggest problem I see with how the media “covers” mental illness. Not everyone who commits a murder is mentally ill, but right now people seem to think that. In turn some people think the mentally ill are dangerous. It’s a horrible and untrue generalization.

I haven’t watch Homeland since the first season. I thought it was a great show. I thought they did an ok job regarding her being bipolar, but I have not seen recent shows. In the first season it was frustrating that people close to her were not beleiving her because of her diagnosis. I think that happens a lot, they get dismissed or not paid attention to when they are under stress and having trouble.

I grew up with an undiagnosed bi-polar mom, so I know better than to believe perpetuate the stigma’s. To me, it’s very sad that people don’t have compassion for others.

Who’s to say when a chemical imbalance or head injury, super-stressful event may put any of us in that same position.

As you, @serenityNOW, know, I live with bipolar disorder type 1, too. I’ve never seen the television show you mention. In fact, I don’t watch TV. I can’t. It’s a very long description as to why I can’t watch television, but it has to do with my illness. The machine switches something in my brain that disallows sitting and relaxing and enjoying it. When it’s on, I pace, and my anxiety builds.

I dislike how mental illness is portrayed in the media. We are stigmatized greatly, and the generalizations are sickening. I managed to make it through the movie Silver Linings Playbook, and I hated it. Some of the individual scenes were good, but the happy ending in which the boy gets the girl and lives happily ever after is plain bullshit. A relationship won’t cure a mental illness.

In my opinion, mental illness is misunderstood, because it can’t be seen. There’s so far no x-ray that can be taken or blood test that can be performed to indicate its presence. It can’t be operated on and cut away to heal the sufferer.

No. i have had one aunt and one friend who were bipolar and seemed to spend time with them only during their up phase. To the average person, they seemed simply very high energy.

Here at this rehab unit, which is short-term, I have hobbled around on my daily walk and seen some people in a very sad state. One man paces from morning to night and gives a non-stop monologue during this period. I don’t understand how he isn’t exhausted all the time. He is often underfoot, and the staff kindly chase him away.

You can’t portray mental illness. No one can know or even try to understand what goes through someone suffering with mental illnesses head. People can try, and that is what leads to it being stereotypical. Those people tend to be very ignorant, which I guess isn’t their fault, they are just ignorant to what they can’t understand.

The media doesn’t influence my impression of mental illness. I worked in mental hospitals for too many years.

Not at all, I love The Bipolar Express…i’ve gone off track again haven’t I?

I rarely appreciate Fluther attempts at being clever, but you have a winner there ^^

I’ve been watching Homeland; just started season 2. I’m interested to see where their portrayal of bipolar goes awry, because so far, it hasn’t seemed that bad to me, not that I would be a good judge of it anyway. Maybe the media subconsciously influences my portrayal of mental illness, but most of my experience with mental illness comes from my schizophrenic uncle and my grandmother who died of Alzheimer’s. It does sort of bug me whenever I hear people talk lightly about Alzheimer’s and compare it to regular senility, when I saw my grandmother degrade over time with it as her brain shut down piece by piece. Either way, I don’t think people are trying to hurt mentally ill people with portrayals like those in Homeland; they’re trying to portray it accurately. But as mental illness is idiosyncratic enough, who’s to say one person’s experience with mental illness must be everyone else’s?

Just to redress the balance somewhat & to illustrate my light hearted approach.
I worked with Alzheimer’s patients for three years in my early twenties & that “hands on” experience was the only influence i’ll ever need.
Phew, officially off the hook.

My main complaint is the news practice of pointing out that many mass shooters or other nefarious people are mentally ill. It makes it seem all mentally ill people will commit crimes.

I have learned much more about mental illness from close friends and Fluther friends than I have from the media but I share your anger.

@YARNLADY I think when that kind of thing happens, we tend to wonder if they may be mentally ill, since that question always come up; but then again, it’s rare that someone who does that kind of thing won’t be mentally ill. In a way, it’s almost a given and doesn’t necessarily need pointing out. It does, however, raise the question of how well mental illness is treated if someone is allowed to get to that point.

The media doesn’t really influence my perception of anything.

except for politics, religion, eating, buying, dying, and fucking

@ucme Alzheimer’s and mental illness are not the same thing

@Dom Exactly. Just diagnosis & meds/ therapy are a major hurdle, add in family turning their backs, etc…it’s so sad.

I have not seen that show.

However, over upon a time I was a fan of the medical drama ER. In a recurring guest role, Sally Field portrayed the ‘manic depressive’ (1990’s) mother of one of the nurses.

I thought surely she was overacting.

Then I met my mother in law.

Sally was bang on.

I know better than to believe that how the media portrays anything is representative of reality.

@anniereborn That’s a debatable point, one which didn’t bring anything to the party, but still.
Alzheimers is a disease of the brain, characterised by memory loss/dementia. Sufferers undergo personality/behaviour change & I think the stigma attached to mental illness is more relevant than anything else here.

I have not seen that show, I can’t believe I havent. There is a show over here in Canada which sounds a little similar called Cracked. I also suffer with bipolar.

There is one show though that gets me going every time. That one is Cops. :/ I can’t stop watching it sometimes. It depends on my mood really. Sometimes I think some of those people have mental illnesses, then it pisses me off when the cop comes and throws them around like a rag doll or something but then I think what if that person really isn’t mental and they are just pretending because some criminals will put on any face just to hear a “not guilty” verdict and get away with any crime. It reminds me of this movie I watched the other night called “Side Effects”.

Yeah I probably do watch too much TV.

Hey all, great answers all around. I’ve made the bold decision to stop watching these kinds of shows. They just get me too riled up. There’s so much media to consume; I probably consume too much as it is…

No, I know the media is biased and lies to support its biases. I don’t take anything media says seriously.