There’s Nothing Romantic about a Mental Illness
There’s nothing romantic about mental illness, yet our society has made it become “romantic,” “edgy,” and “trendy.”
When will the film industry stop using mental illness as a romantic trope? Romanticizing mental illness is a huge problem in the media industry, because it sets all these expectations and it fails to show how hard it really is to live with mental illnesses. Films make mental illnesses seem superficial, as if they were personality traits. Mental illnesses are serious and debilitating!
Movies and documentaries that elicit a mental illness theme show the protagonists are ‘fixed’ of their mental illness because they ‘fall in love,’ and, thus, their mental illness disappears in a whirlwind of romance. It especially saddens me to think of young mentally ill children watching these. They are being told that a kiss from the right person will whisk their depression away, that their eating disorder will attract a saviour who will sweep them off their feet and into recovery, or that their symptoms are actually secret superpowers. Hollywood stories almost imply that one cure to mental illness, whether it be depression in “Garden State,” bipolar disorder in “Silver Linings Playbook,” or schizophrenia in “Benny & Joon,” is love. But guess what? Real life isn’t like that. The whole ‘your soulmate will fix you’ idea is a recipe for codependency and trauma.
Mental illness is NOT a romantic plot line. It just exacerbates harmful stereotypes about the suffering of others. It is triggering and unhealthy for those struggling with mental illness to see others struggle with mental illness, as well as see the glamorization of their own conditions.
Having a mental illness is NOT cool, or attractive, or romantic or quirky. They are life-threatening and exhausting, and they are most definitely not cured when you meet your significant other.
So to future playwrights, directors, screenwriters and actors, please do not make mental illness your romantic plot line. It is not cool nor romantic to profit from showcasing the traumatic effects that mental illness can have on others.
