Mental illness in the TV industry
"Why would I work my ass off to get better, when it seemed being sick was special and romantic?"
― Renée (19)
“The portrayal of mental issues in TV can have a massive impact on the viewer's own health”
Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels
Two friends studying “International Journalism” at the Thomas More College in Mechelen, Belgium.
With both having a history of mental health issues, we knew we wanted to do something around the topic for our final work.
After digging around for a bit, we found that there’s often a problem in the portrayal of psychological illnesses in the TV industry. Mental illnesses are often romanticised; the characters’ lives seem more appealing and aesthetically pleasing than how a mental illness is in real life.
With this blog, we’ll be looking into this phenomenon and trying to open up a conversation about mental health.