Sinead Fallon tackles the media handling of mental illness. It featured in The Journal on 19 July 2014 and is reproduced by TPQ with the author's permission.

Sinead Fallon
 When the media highlights mental illness it’s the same story all the time, on the TV or on the radio – an average young man who feels down.

Although clearly well-intentioned, the irony is that in order to reduce perceived stigma the media has given us a palatable portrayal of mental illness.

Though it is clearly well-intentioned, the irony is that in order to normalise the disease and to reduce the stigma endured by mentally ill people, the media has given us a sanitised, palatable portrayal of mental illness.

The man portrayed is “just like you and me”, he’s “one of the lads”, but he’s just not himself right now. He has no energy, wants to stay in bed all day, and he loses interest in the things he used to love; he loses interest in life.

He isn’t identifiably mentally ill and still very approachable – not at all like the homeless man talking to himself in the street, or the woman rocking back and forth on the bus. Definitely not “weird”, definitely not “strange”, he is “normal”, just like you.

The man then experiences a series of positive changes. Support is received from family, friends, the GP, or his Irish mammy. Some medication is taken, or alternatively some counselling. The young man “recovers”.

The End.

Such stories are realistic, and this young man is like many across the country. Many people do suffer a one-off, temporary depression, but recover fully and return to their normal day to day life.

For many, it is not temporary

Many are not so lucky. Their suffering is lifelong, and they must learn to accept their fate and live with their illnesses. They look weird sometimes, act strangely sometimes, and they make you uncomfortable sometimes. They are different.

I do not want to paint a purely pessimistic picture of mental illness. Even with all its difficulties, a good standard of living is possible with the right help and with an adequate support system.

To achieve this, an honest and realistic outlook is essential. Acceptance that they will have this disease for the rest of their lives. Like Crohn’s disease or diabetes, they have a lifelong illness that can be managed but will never go away. There is no magic quick fix. They are not responsible for the illness and will have limited control over it.

The one-size-fits-all presentation of mental illness – in which someone is depressed and gets over it – is dangerous because so many who experience depressive episodes do not return to their lives as they knew them. Their illnesses grow and change over the years. They often receive new diagnoses of bipolar, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, anxiety, eating disorders, etc.

They continue to suffer periodic episodes of psychosis or depression. They struggle with medication and its side effects. They will also face an understaffed, underfunded, chaotic health service. Their lives never return to how they were before. Relationships are seriously affected. Employment is a serious challenge. Poor physical health is common. The suffering of lifelong mental illness is immense.

Though it waxes and wanes, it never really ends.

The struggle to understand

Like society in general, the media finds it difficult to accept long-term mental illness and they struggle to understand sufferers. They want to fix them, to find that magic formula that would get them back to normal, but those involved have learned the hard way that there is no getting back to normal. There is just acceptance of this new life as the normal.

Those with life-long mental illness face stigmatisation, discrimination and social exclusion. When they are seen to refuse to present themselves as normal or to recover as others have, that is how society treats them. Such societal attitudes are heavily influenced by politicians, public commentators and the media.

What I would love to see and hear in media portraits of mental illness is not the facile cliché or the banal sound bite, but the whole truth.

  • Sinead Fallon is a researcher and writer with interests in mental health, advocacy, childrens rights and social justice. Sinead can be reached on Twitter @sineadhfallon or by email sinead_fallon@yahoo.ie

The Reality of Mental Illness doesn’t fit into a Sanitised Sound Bite

Sinead Fallon tackles the media handling of mental illness. It featured in The Journal on 19 July 2014 and is reproduced by TPQ with the author's permission.

Sinead Fallon
 When the media highlights mental illness it’s the same story all the time, on the TV or on the radio – an average young man who feels down.

Although clearly well-intentioned, the irony is that in order to reduce perceived stigma the media has given us a palatable portrayal of mental illness.

Though it is clearly well-intentioned, the irony is that in order to normalise the disease and to reduce the stigma endured by mentally ill people, the media has given us a sanitised, palatable portrayal of mental illness.

The man portrayed is “just like you and me”, he’s “one of the lads”, but he’s just not himself right now. He has no energy, wants to stay in bed all day, and he loses interest in the things he used to love; he loses interest in life.

He isn’t identifiably mentally ill and still very approachable – not at all like the homeless man talking to himself in the street, or the woman rocking back and forth on the bus. Definitely not “weird”, definitely not “strange”, he is “normal”, just like you.

The man then experiences a series of positive changes. Support is received from family, friends, the GP, or his Irish mammy. Some medication is taken, or alternatively some counselling. The young man “recovers”.

The End.

Such stories are realistic, and this young man is like many across the country. Many people do suffer a one-off, temporary depression, but recover fully and return to their normal day to day life.

For many, it is not temporary

Many are not so lucky. Their suffering is lifelong, and they must learn to accept their fate and live with their illnesses. They look weird sometimes, act strangely sometimes, and they make you uncomfortable sometimes. They are different.

I do not want to paint a purely pessimistic picture of mental illness. Even with all its difficulties, a good standard of living is possible with the right help and with an adequate support system.

To achieve this, an honest and realistic outlook is essential. Acceptance that they will have this disease for the rest of their lives. Like Crohn’s disease or diabetes, they have a lifelong illness that can be managed but will never go away. There is no magic quick fix. They are not responsible for the illness and will have limited control over it.

The one-size-fits-all presentation of mental illness – in which someone is depressed and gets over it – is dangerous because so many who experience depressive episodes do not return to their lives as they knew them. Their illnesses grow and change over the years. They often receive new diagnoses of bipolar, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, anxiety, eating disorders, etc.

They continue to suffer periodic episodes of psychosis or depression. They struggle with medication and its side effects. They will also face an understaffed, underfunded, chaotic health service. Their lives never return to how they were before. Relationships are seriously affected. Employment is a serious challenge. Poor physical health is common. The suffering of lifelong mental illness is immense.

Though it waxes and wanes, it never really ends.

The struggle to understand

Like society in general, the media finds it difficult to accept long-term mental illness and they struggle to understand sufferers. They want to fix them, to find that magic formula that would get them back to normal, but those involved have learned the hard way that there is no getting back to normal. There is just acceptance of this new life as the normal.

Those with life-long mental illness face stigmatisation, discrimination and social exclusion. When they are seen to refuse to present themselves as normal or to recover as others have, that is how society treats them. Such societal attitudes are heavily influenced by politicians, public commentators and the media.

What I would love to see and hear in media portraits of mental illness is not the facile cliché or the banal sound bite, but the whole truth.

  • Sinead Fallon is a researcher and writer with interests in mental health, advocacy, childrens rights and social justice. Sinead can be reached on Twitter @sineadhfallon or by email sinead_fallon@yahoo.ie

6 comments:

  1. "The one-size-fits-all presentation of mental illness – in which someone is depressed and gets over it – is dangerous..."

    I would imagine telling people they will never get over it and had might as well get used to it would be more dangerous. If you remove hope from the seriously depressed then what have they left?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tell 'em nothing Tiarna!


    The Journey (by Mary Oliver)

    One day you finally knew
    what you had to do, and began,
    though the voices around you
    kept shouting
    their bad advice—
    though the whole house
    began to tremble
    and you felt the old tug
    at your ankles.
    “Mend my life!”
    each voice cried.
    But you didn't stop.
    You knew what you had to do,
    though the wind pried
    with its stiff fingers
    at the very foundations,
    though their melancholy
    was terrible.
    It was already late
    enough, and a wild night,
    and the road full of fallen
    branches and stones.
    But little by little,
    as you left their voices behind,
    the stars began to burn
    through the sheets of clouds,
    and there was a new voice
    which you slowly
    recognized as your own,
    that kept you company
    as you strode deeper and deeper
    into the world,
    determined to do
    the only thing you could do—
    determined to save
    the only life you could save.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tiarna,

    "I would imagine telling people they will never get over it and had might as well get used to it would be more dangerous."

    Sinéad does not say that those who treat people with long-term mental illness should tell all of their patients to give up and get used to their suffering. On the contrary, she writes that "[e]ven with all its difficulties, a good standard of living is possible with the right help and with an adequate support system."

    Her key point is that because of the sanitised, simplistic portrayals of mental illness in the media -- e.g. David Beckham's self-diagnosed and ridiculously mild OCD -- people like me who have long-term mental illness are stigmatized because, as Sinéad puts it, we "are are seen to refuse to present themselves as normal or to recover as others have."

    I have battled anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and severe depression since I was 8 years old. Last summer, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had to give up alcohol.

    I think Sinéad expresses with great insight and clarity the frustration we sufferers feel in the aftermath of the facile clichés of the Donal Walsh media campaign against suicide. Donal's death from cancer was a tragedy, but he was a teenager who understood as little about living with mental illness as I do about dying from cancer.

    When the government breaks it promise to provide adequate funding for mental health services, telling those who are suicidal that "help is out there" is just a meaningless platitude.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I read this on the original website and thought it was a great article.

    I have had three bouts of illness, all when I was younger and the fear of relapse is so palpable and more or less constant.

    When a person without such a history does something out of character or unusual they may brush it off. I worry that it is a sign of relapse.

    I don't drink or take drugs as the risk of relapse is too great. Also people like myself are no more likely to be violent compared to fully well people unless drink or drugs are taken.

    I have to take tablets every day yet I only visit my doctor once a year. I am fully recovered but have to take them as a preventative measure.

    I would say to anyone in difficulty that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. It may take time but things will improve.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Alfie

    I got that but it was the emphasis on what is 'dangerous'. Getting getting people through depression is often the priority even though there maybe other or continuing somatic health issues, and as you quote "[e]ven with all its difficulties, a good standard of living is possible with the right help and with an adequate support system".

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good article Mental illnesses are diverse and complex. I once made the mistake of telling an acquaintance I had been up til midnite lining up every single jar and containers, all the china in absolute perfect lines in all the cupboards in the kitchen and was freaking exhausted. And then I laughed – a tired resigned cackle and said “ptsd management episode” The acquaintance was horrified but friends in the know just nodded and laughed with me… At least I moved on from the glass paper weights – I have an extensive collection. Every single one used to daily be placed in a certain spot in lines of three etc etc It was hell at the time (it was a long time obsession that one) I used to think about them at work and worry one was not aligned right.

    All a long time ago but I have been doing stuff like this from when I was minor and as I got older when I got flashbacks . A doctor told me it was how I made myself feel safe and that it represented safety and order and control because things had happened in my early formative years that took away any sense of safety and things happened in my teens that reinforced this. . Just sharing that because it helped me be kind to me and may help someone.

    Depression is different – I have never been able to laugh about it… when it hits in a deep avalanche that swallows me up it is always the tunnel of hell… and I surf thru it over and over til it ebbs in power. Time has taught me it is with me always in lesser or greater levels and its ok because I know now how to manage it. I got depression bigtime from when seriously ill with hepatitis c (am now pcr-) U think there is societal stigma re mental illness let me tell u there is just as much equally re hiv/aids and hep c… Me and two others iwere the first public speakers stating our blood status re hep c. I didn’t feel the love if u get me drift… And we (educated professionals ourselves) were educating medical professionals…

    People were scared… u could sense their revulsion/fear see it in their eyes… We were brave in retrospect All those eyes looking up at us like we were freaks… NB Similar happens towards individuals disclosing they are living with mental illness…
    One of the pearls of wisdom someone told me decades ago who was getting clean sorting their life out “ I am not my ‘madness’ I am ME – I want people to see ME” Yes!! preach it!

    You can only preach it when you know the depth of horror the tunnel of hell and endless protracted suffering…. But until society smashes down the stigma and gets real the media portrayals are going to be sanitised, inadequate and miss the mark Why should anyone go public with their story when we all know full well the societal stigma at mental illness is so there and real. Why should individuals living with mental illness suffer even more by tokenism portrayals…. I used to want to be like others craved to be ‘normal’ Now I don’t care. I am ‘normal’ even if it don’t fit the societal expectations.
    PS Aeons I did an enormous mural painting titled Not quite right in the head It is hanging up in a youth centre place It tells in image form the story of mental suffering and survival and triumphing … It is an imagery story full of rage illness sorrows laughter hope love and ultimate triumph! You don’t need words Those suffering understand… The title still makes me laugh… I am laughing in the face of societal stigma

    ReplyDelete