Mental Illness in Literature and Media

With the recent release of the Thirteen Reasons Why TV series and other publications featuring characters with mental illnesses, one could hope that the world is slowly becoming more accepting and understanding.  However, I find that there is one key component that is always off gear in these types of books:  that mental illnesses are rare, that they are wrong, and if the character has one, they are broken.

Books and other media try to raise understanding of how the mind of someone who is suffering from mental disease works, and while they may succeed in doing so, they often fail at developing an understanding that people are not defined by their disorders--that they are still people.  Authors, in their endeavor to explore the disorder, often forget the person.  

This is, in part, society's fault.  It tells us that people with mental illnesses are unhinged freaks who could snap at any moment and poison the world around them.  Mental illnesses are not colds--you cannot catch them, and the people with them most likely will not be the death of you.

Do you know how common mental illness is?  One in four people in the world are affected by some sort of mental disorder.  Sadly enough, it is often ignored, or dismissed, or simply untreated.  People won't come forward about their illnesses because they are afraid of being rejected and misunderstood.  Instead of teaching acceptance, we preach disgust.  

Authors attempt to explain the why and the how behind these disorders, but first they themselves need to become aware in order to shift today's views.  I don't hold it against the writers for getting it wrong.  They attempted to explain and to raise awareness of mental illness, and at the very least, they cared enough to try.  No, it is the mindset of our cultures that is to blame.  

People are intolerant of anything that sets others apart.  It is so difficult to be accepted in the world even if you don't have something that makes you intrinsically different from others.  Whether it is mental illness, gender, religious views, sexual orientation, or even something as simple as the music you like or the color of your hair, people will always be waiting to objectify, ridicule, and shut you out.  

We cannot allow this.  We are, above all else, people, and instead of alienating others and isolating ourselves, we should learn to embrace humanity and all of its imperfections.

This is the message these books should be sending--not that having a mental disorder, that being different makes you less of a person, or that it is a thing to be romanticized. It is not okay to be, well, not okay, but it is not wrong, either.