PSA | Romanticization and Portrayal of Mental Disorders

Trigger Warning: This post is going to be talking about mental disorders. Don’t read ahead if you’re sensitive to those topics.

This is something I’ve seen happen multiple times, and as someone who struggles with mental disorders personally, especially depression, one that’s commonly glorified, it’s really upsetting and irritating to see this happen.

The issue: People romanticizing and glorifying mental disorders, making up disorders, or portraying them incorrectly.

I’ve seen this happen on multiple Aminos, including this one at times, and it happens especially with original characters. Some people romanticize mental disorders. Now, before we get into the discussion, I’d like to tell you what the definition of romanticization is.

Romanticization, as defined by Oxford Dictionaries, is: Deal with or described in an idealized or unrealistic fashion; make (something) seem better or more appealing than it actually is.

As messed up as it sounds, people have done this multiple times, especially with original characters, as stated before, and with headcanons with canon characters. There could be many reasons, but a common one is they don’t have all the correct facts about a mental disorder, which is why I find it incredibly important that someone does PROPER research on mental disorders before giving one to a character. Proper research is not one quick scroll on Wikipedia. It’s carefully reading multiple articles and taking their words into deep consideration, it’s watching multiple videos about what people have gone through personally, and if someone’s comfortable with talking about it, asking questions. And if you personally struggle with a disorder, taking your own feelings and experiences, and thinking about it properly. You NEED to do your research if you plan to give your character a mental disorder that you don’t know much about.

Examples of two disorders that I’ve seen people commonly romanticize, or describe incorrectly:

Depression | Just being sad for an hour and needing a hug uwu

Anxiety | Just being nervous all the time with no negative affects with life!

That may have seemed a bit dramatic, but now you see how messed up it seems when you romanticize something serious, and how someone seems when they romanticize a disorder, or portray it incorrectly.

Depression is /not/ being sad for an hour and getting over it for life, Depression can be a lifelong, and possibly life-threatening disorder, that can affect someone’s day-to-day life. Depression can cause someone to feel too much, too little, or something different entirely. It seems like nothing has a purpose anymore, and it feels difficult to complete a simple task, such as getting out of bed in the morning, and there are so many more things about it that are difficult to put into words. People with depression do feel sad, but it isn’t just a feeling of sadness you get from watching a sad TV show, and yes, people with depression can feel other emotions. They’re not a robot, they /can/ experience other emotions. Anxiety is not just being nervous all the time. Anxiety can hold someone back, and like depression, it can affect someone’s life in many negative ways.

Making up mental disorders is almost as messed up as not portraying one correctly. It invalidates people with actual mental health problems, and it’s seriously insensitive. An example of this: I’ve seen someone describe a disorder incorrectly. They could have worded it wrong, but it seemed like they were saying their character has a sadness disorder for a tragic background. For one, mental disorders aren’t sadness disorders. They can be emotional, behavioral, and personality disorders, but not sadness disorders, and having a mental disorder doesn’t instantly make someone’s background tragic. People have had perfectly normal lives, and yet they can still develop certain disorders over time. The way the person had described it was inaccurate, and it seemed somewhat insensitive, as they just seemed to do it do their character had a tragic backstory, and not because of the fact that it’s a serious thing. See what I mean?

What the big issue is with romanticizing mental disorders, making them up, or portraying them incorrectly.

As stated before, it makes people with real mental disorders seem like they’re just faking it, or that they can just, “get over it”. There are so many people that believe depression is something that you can just get over, that you just need to not think about your anxiety, and so many other things. Romanticizing disorders/making them up/portraying them incorrectly isn’t helping someone with real issues make people aware that all of that is untrue. It’s incredibly insensitive to portray a disorder wrong, or to make it seem like something desirable and like it’s something someone should want, when really, a mental disorder is NOT something anyone should want, ever, and in the end, it honestly makes the person who did it look ignorant.

So, how can you portray them correctly?

I’m not saying you should want to give your character any disorder, but it honestly can help spread awareness to disorders IF it is done correctly, so, here’s some advice on the correct way to.

•DO PROPER RESEARCH. I cannot stress this enough. Don’t look at one article and think you know everything. As said before, ask questions (if possible), take your own experiences into , watch videos, and read MULTIPLE articles.

•Portray the ugly parts of the disorder, because mental disorders are ugly, and it’s somewhat necessary if your character is going to have one (unless there’s a potential trigger. Then, be sure to include a trigger warning, and if it’s in roleplay, ask your roleplay partner about their triggers).

•If you’re unsure about something, go back and do your research before you post something

•People have different experiences, so be sure to take that into !

•Don’t give your character a mental disorder just to make them seem like they’ve had a horrible life. Yes, people with bad experiences/backgrounds may develop a disorder over time, but people have come from normal and good lives and still developed one, or was born with it (saying as they’re chemical imbalances of the brain), and just giving your character a disorder for a, “tragic”, backstory is pretty insensitive.

•Describe them in a realistic manner, and be as close to accurate as possible

There’s many other things you can do to portray disorders correctly, but those are just a few. That about raps it up for this post. I apologize if anything was worded incorrectly, as I was irritated when I made this post, but I hope I got my point across.