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In this article , "Kurt Cobain was not a 'tortured genius', he had an illness"by author Matt Haig, when artist Kurt committed suicide,  the society viewed it as tragedy and totally different. Having mental illness is the same illness as the physical illness. The society ignored and treated the people as they're being harmful to others. The belief of seeing people  who are experiencing mental illness as vary compared to others who have physical illness leaves the people with mental illness in even more depression. Depression doesn't make the people a danger to other people. It's the society and people that make a danger and tragedy.

I think this article clearly tells how bad the society is a problematic portrayal. It's really important that we don't ignore the people who are having mental illness. Also, we should learn to consider mental illness as an illness and treat them as normal people. Mental illness is also similar to some kind of physical illness which is not rare and uncommon. Making the patients who have mental illness feel like they don't belong to this society and they are suffering wholly differing illness could impact them more which can lead them to committing suicide. In the article, "Kurt Cobain was not a 'tortured genius', he had an illness", Matt said, Depression is not the person, it is something that happens to a person."

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How 'Mr. Robot' Nailed Its Depiction of Mental Illness- Kevin Ly

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How 'Mr. Robot' Nailed Its Depiction of Mental Illness- Kevin Ly

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https://www.inverse.com/article/19084-mr-robot-mental-illness-dissociative-identity-disorder-split

My source talked about the tv show Mr. Robot and how the main character, Elliot deals with his mental illness. You see Elliot's struggles through his eyes and how he deals with it. These struggles are important to the plot of the show.
Elliot suffers from dissociative identity disorder, often called multiple personality disorder. Elliot also had previous battles with addiction and anxiety. The article praises the show for accurately portraying mental illness. "Much rarer is a show like Mr. Robot, which depicts mental illness from the point of view of the character, in a way that is integral to the plot but not its sole driving force. Based on how the show has treated the issue thus far, there’s reason to remain optimistic that it won’t cheapen. This realism disorients and thrills viewers who can’t relate, and is authentic and recognizable to those who can."

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This article talks about the movie forrest gump,  a man with a mental disability who still achieves many amazing feats, and is involved in many historical american events. It talks about how the movie portrays his disability as something normal and nothing to be ashamed of. It portrays him as being a better kinder person than most of the people without a mental disorder.

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I can think of at least 13 reasons why these wise words remain true today.

The latest Netflix hit, "13 Reasons Why," is based on the novel of the same name by Jay Asher and deals with fictional teenager Hannah Baker's death by suicide. Before her death, she records a series of 13 tapes, blaming various people and enumerating the reasons for her death. The overarching narrative is a noble, if simplistic one: be nice to people, because you never know what they might be dealing with.

Or, more troublingly: Be nice to people, or they might make you regret it.

After revealing in the show's behind-the-scenes special that she wanted to adapt "13 Reasons Why" to help people, pop superstar and series executive producer Selena Gomez, who has been candid about her own mental health struggles, has faced considerable backlash.

Many -- myself included -- object to the series' depiction of suicide because it lacks understanding about how to show it on screen safely. And that narrative choice, while an artistic one, is also a potentially devastating setback in the effort to combat a problem which by any conservative estimate is a global health crisis. Nic Sheff, who wrote the series' 6th episode, had a personal connection with the content. Informed by that experience, he recently wrote an article for Vanity Fair defending the series and its choice to depict Hannah's suicide on-screen.

"From the very beginning, I agreed that we should depict the suicide with as much detail and accuracy as possible. I even argued for it -- relating the story of my own suicide attempt to the other writers," he wrote. "In AA, they call it playing the tape: encouraging alcoholics to really think through in detail the exact sequence of events that will occur after relapse. It's the same thing with suicide."

I get Sheff's point, and understand why he feels that way. However, one of the things that people recovering from a mental health problem or illness learn in their recovery is that your feelings are not always facts. The biggest problem with Sheff's defense is that, while it feels right, it's scientifically, demonstrably, incorrect and dangerous.

Why experts think the show is dangerous

Numerous credible evidence-based organizations with a firm grasp of the suicide prevention world discourage graphic depictions or discussions of suicide, because, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and others, risk of additional suicides increases when a story explicitly describes the suicide method, uses dramatic or graphic headlines or images, and when repeated coverage of that story sensationalizes or glamorizes a death.

According to a variety of expert sources, harmful portrayals of suicide may include some of the following features, many of which "13 Reasons Why" uses in its portrayals of Hannah and her community:

They may simplify suicide by suggesting that bullying alone is the cause.

They may make suicide seem romantic by putting it in the context of a Hollywood plot line. A simple, logical, and well-connected plotline may satisfy the story arc needs of a viewing audience, but it is rarely, if ever, the way that suicides really happen.

They may portray suicide as a viable option, one that can be an understandable outcome given a particular set of circumstances. In nearly all cases, people who die by suicide have a diagnosable (and therefore treatable) mental health problem at the time of their death.

They may display graphic representations of suicide which may be harmful to viewers, especially young ones and those who are highly sensitized to suicide imagery, as most attempt survivors and loss survivors are.

They may advance the false notion that suicides are a way to teach others a lesson, and that the deceased person will finally be understood and vindicated. They won't. They'll still be dead.

None of the criticism of "13 Reasons Why" means that we shouldn't talk about suicide; we should. In fact, it's critical that we do. But we need to do it right. We know that contact-based education -- when people share their personal stories of struggle and recovery -- is by far the most effective way of breaking down stigma surrounding suicide, which is the primary reason people don't speak up or get help.

I have some experience with this

I know, I've done it a few times. My TEDx talk about some of my own suicide attempts is among the top 40 most watched TEDx talks in the world. In it, I share some details about my own journey, and have since also reconnected via YouTube with the passing stranger who intervened and helped to pull me to safety during a suicide attempt when I was a teenager.

Triggers are not necessarily to be avoided at all costs, but if you're going to pull off a band-aid, you had better be ready to stop the bleeding and help the person to heal. To the credit of Netflix, they do link to resources from the JED Foundation. They've also added warnings to some episodes, and have rated the series TV-MA. Not doing so would have been a grave mistake, both morally and legally.

Discussion and media portrayals of suicide, even disturbingly inaccurate ones like those shown in "13 Reasons Why," don't "give people the idea" to kill themselves, but may still contribute to a suicide contagion or, somewhat crudely, "copycat suicides." That's because these portrayals provide a cognitive pathway, a roadmap of sorts, that tricks the minds of those at risk for suicide into believing the lies that their mental illnesses tell them. That is, at some level, they're probably already thinking of it, but rather than releasing those feelings in a controlled burn, the unhelpful content on the screen just adds fuel to a forest fire.

The critiques of "13 Reasons Why" are also about more than artistic license; the show has interjected itself into a dire real-world situation. Suicide is one of the l eading causes of death around the world. More than 40,000 people die by suicide across the United States each year, and more than 800,000 around the world. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, more people die by suicide globally than from both murder and war combined.

What suicide is and is not

People are dying, and they don't have to be. They don't have to be because the real underlying risk factors for suicide -- generally mental health problems and illnesses like depression -- are completely and effectively treatable. The problem is that people aren't getting access to the help they need, and those who do are far too often getting it too late.

This is a scandal. If people were dying from any other preventable illness at the rates we're losing good, creative, beautiful, intelligent, average everyday people to suicide, there would be (and often are) massive social actions to prevent it. Washington would be bolstering mental health resources for fear of losing an election, rather than gutting existing legislation that attempts to provide, albeit feebly, protections and resources.

In her own defense of the series, Gomez described it in a recent discussion with the Associated Press as "a beautifully tragic, complicated yet suspenseful story." Netflix itself initially responded to the criticism by pointing out that "entertainment has always been the ultimate connector." Suicide is never beautiful, Selena. It is not entertainment, Netflix. However, it is always tragic.

I don't doubt that Netflix, Sheff, Gomez, or nearly anyone else motivated by their own personal experience and interpretation of suicide intended to do harm by creating "13 Reasons Why." In fact, seemingly in response to overwhelming criticism from mental health professionals and advocates alike, Netflix has bended to some calls for additional warnings and resource information. However, they may find it a challenge to put this particular genie back in the bottle.

Should you choose to watch it, please do so with great caution. If you do watch, know your triggers, know your self-care tools, and know who to talk to if you need help.

Also, please consider avoiding making the recommendation that "everyone watch" a show like this, as we do with so many others.

You never know what someone else is going through.

If you are feeling suicidal, or know someone who is, please reach out for help. Crisis lines in your community can be found here. For further resources, you can consult the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

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why '13 reasons why' is dangerous (opinion)  - cnn

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I can think of at least 13 reasons why these wise words remain true today. The latest Netflix hit, "13 Reasons Why," is based on the novel of the same name by Jay Asher and deals with fictional teenager Hannah Baker's death by suicide.

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Pretty Little Liars

Hanna Marin and Bulimia

Hanna Marin is one of the 5 main characters in my all time favorite show Pretty Little Liars. There are many examples of mental illness within the show but I am choosing to focus on her because when people think mental illness, I doubt bulimia is the first thing to come to mind.

Hanna suffered from bulimia as a young and impressionable 14 year old girl just trying to fit in with her skinny friends. She would eat and eat and eat and feel so guilty about that almost immediately she would purge the food from her body afterward.

She was coerced by the leader of her friend group to do this to herself and after a few times being helped, Hanna became an expert. However, she soon dropped the habit realizing how it was hurting her and her body.

Contrary to the dropping of the purging of food, it left her mentally scarred, always self conscious, and extremely fragile.

I can appreciate how Hanna is portrayed throughout the show. She is a very strong individual that overcomes much while still struggling with this mental illness. I found this portrayal to be fairly accurate.

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I found an article where they showed how Bojack Horseman, a show typical for it’s depiction of mental illness, had an episode that’s hit home for most people. This episode featured a highlight of depression and suicidal thoughts. This hit home to many viewers and caused a lot of controversy throughout the fan base. Man you thought that this was relatable, and had them in tears by the end. What I like about this show is that it doesn’t sugarcoat the struggles of mental illness, and shows the struggles that people face every day. All in all, I think pop culture should instead spread awareness of the struggles instead of highlighting the crime and everything else.

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"Mental Illness in All the Bright Places"

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"Mental Illness in All the Bright Places"

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The article I chose is from an online blog called "Feminist Fiction" which is owned by a woman named Rhiannon Thomas. This is a review by her about the novel All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. She states her opinion on the story itself, but the main point of the blog entry is to talk about the representation of mental illness in All The Bright Places. This book revolves around two teenagers who both deal with depression and one of them has bipolar disorder. The book also includes difficult topics like bullying, abuse, and suicide. It is actually a very controversial book because (spoiler) the male protagonist does end up taking his own life at the end of the story.
But as I mentioned, both of the protagonists have mental illnesses and reach out to adults in the book, who don't do much. But what a lot of people don't know about the story is that it is meant to do that. The male teenager never seeks help because he doesn't want how he feels to label him and also because the adults in his life with just shrug it off and say take some Advil or something. Jennifer Niven even includes an author's note at the end of the story to say that she had people in her life commit suicide because of the lack of representation for mental health in the society. There is a lot of stigma surrounding mental illnesses, most of it being that it is a load of crap and a lot of people don't take signs and symptoms seriously. This book was a way to show that and the effects of not getting help. At the end of the author's note Niven includes a list of websites and organizations and phone numbers if anybody ever feels alone or helpless. I think this book is a great portrayal of mental illness in that through the characters perspectives, it is real and raw and doesn't sugar coat it. It shows what not giving attention to loved ones who show obvious signs of illness can do. The whole book is a platform to show that it is so vital to help those who need it and who may be too scared to ask for it.

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All the Bright Places is the latest "big thing" in contemporary young adult fiction, following in the footsteps of The Fault in Our Stars and Eleanor & Park.

Like almost every highly-anticipated YA contemporary this year, it's about mental illness and suicide: two teenagers meet on the ledge of their school bell-tower as they both contemplate jumping. Theodore Finch has just come back from a massive depressive episode and is fascinated with death. Violet Markey is still struggling to recover from her sister's death in a car accident. They end up friends, and discover that, as the official summary says, "it's only with Violet that Finch can be himself" and "it's only with Finch that Violet... can start living."

But set that ukelele soundtrack and life-affirming plotline out of your mind, because this book digs far deeper into mental illness than you might expect. It goes deep into Finch's bipolar disorder, as well as exploring the crippling depression that Violet has felt as a result of her sister's death.

And honestly, I can't decide what I think about this novel's treatment of mental illness. I've been left unsettled and angry after finishing it, and I can't figure out whether that's a good or a bad thing.

(Warning: major spoilers for the book)

First, a quick summary of how the book goes. Violet gets better. She deals with her grief, gains new friends, falls for Finch, finds a way to be creative after months unable to write a word, reconnects with her family and begins to think about her future. Finch, on the other hand, gets worse. A teacher suggests he has bipolar disorder, but Finch rejects the idea, and he ultimately kills himself. The final few chapters explore Violet's reaction as she faces life without him.

Finch has been described as Violet's Manic Pixie Dream Boy, and that is literally true. Finch is bipolar. He has manic episodes in the book, and most of the "great adventures" that he and Violet go on, most of their fantastic, romantic, see-things-in-a-new-light, seize the day moments, are driven almost entirely by mania. They happen because Finch aggrandizes, and is impulsive, and risk-taking, because his thoughts race and everything is big and dramatic and romantic to him.

And what does this say about the MPDG trope? Finch's behavior helps to bring Violet out of her shell and appreciate life after her sister's death, which follows the typical MPDG narrative, albeit with a manic pixie dream boy. From that perspective, it's almost as if this aspect of mental illness is romanticized too, like Finch ultimately suffers but he provides a refreshing new world view to others who aren't mentally ill. But then the story doesn't end happily. Finch never gets help, and he ends up committing suicide. Violet is crushed after his death, and nothing about it is painted as pretty or soft or romantic, from the "bloated" body to the way his parents sweep the suicide under the rug to Violet's feelings of intense guilt and loss. It almost seems to tackle the entire "manic pixie" trope head on, with this idea that others don't live to save us, and that, despite the pretentious lines and dark-cutesy "meeting on top of the bell tower" opening, there is nothing sweet and Instagram-filtered-indie-movie about mental illness.

But then, things flip around again, because the book doesn't end with a focus on Finch's suicide and his illness, at least as I read it. It ends with Violet following a scavenger hunt that Finch left for her, and being reminded by this journey and the tokens he has left that she has to find the beauty in things, and live her life to the full, and all that stuff. Typical manic pixie dream cliches that he is indirectly passing on after death. So does this challenge those tropes and present a more realistic take on mental illness? Or is it a more realistic take on mental illness that still wants to use it to impart a message of hope and "seize the day," regardless of the fact that that message came in part from the illness itself? The book doesn't really grapple with the ways that Finch's mania has both positive and negative effects, so in the end, its hard to tell.

But that, I think, is the biggest problem with this book. It doesn't deal with Finch's mental illness. Niven does a frankly stunning job of capturing Finch's mood swings in her prose, pulling us along in the racing thoughts and the despair, and her depiction of mental illness is one of the most realistic-feeling I've come across in YA. It hurts to read. But it doesn't feel resolved. Finch immediately rejects the label of bipolar because labels "explain people away as illnesses," and he never receives any help beyond forced conversations with his school counsellor. There's no treatment, no real help at all, and his suicide feels inevitable from about page 20. And we don't get to see this final descent. Although most of the book alternates between Violet and Finch's points of view, we don't get any of Finch's thoughts in the weeks leading up to his suicide. It becomes entirely Violet's story -- how Violet doesn't know what's happened to him, how Violet is angry, how Violet misses him, how Violet finds his body, how Violet responds afterwards. Considering how unafraid the book was to explore the dark places in Finch's head before, it seems strange that it abandons his perspective weeks before his death, leaving another character to explain what being suicidal might feel like. This both makes Finch feel more like Violet's Manic Pixie Dream Guy, with it all being about his impact on her story, and cheats us of emotional resolution to his story.

I understand that Niven wanted to tackle both mental illness and suicide in this novel, adding to the string of suicide-focussed YA coming out this year, and I also understand that suicide is a far too common outcome to these situations, especially when a person doesn't receive any treatment. But the novel ends up with a very fatalistic tone. It opens with Finch contemplating suicide from a bell tower, and he dances with suicide throughout the book. He analyses every possible approach, swallows pills and throws them up, holds himself underwater until he almost drowns... and on and on and on. The message is very hopeless -- Violet, who only suffers with grief, can move on and grow, but Finch dies. Illnesses are labels, and so they are bad. No treatment wanted, no treatment necessary. Just suffer until you give in. Perhaps Finch would have been less of a manic pixie dream boy if, in the end, he stabilized. Perhaps it would have been less romantic as a result. Perhaps Violet would have found that she loved Finch's mania and didn't love him when he was stable. Perhaps perhaps perhaps. And those are interesting plotlines to explore. But those possibilities are abandoned for the inevitable off-screen suicide instead, and although my edition of the book ended with a whole bunch of helplines and website links for mental illness, Finch's attitude to labels lingers. Saying you have a mental illness is bad, because you're a person, not an illness. Pills turn you into a zombie. It's fight your way out, or die.

And are we supposed to challenge Finch's view as we read? Are we supposed to come out of it seeing all the ways that he was mentally unwell, and the ways he should and could have been helped? It's hard to get a grip on things, because we lose our grip on Finch in the narrative, several chapters before he dies. It all becomes about Violet.

This book is beautifully written. Niven's work is frankly masterful. But I can't help feel frustrated after reading it. I'm frustrated that we get the harmful and cliched moment where the guy tells the girl that he's broken, and if she gets too close he'll break her too, and she ignores the warning and kisses him and tells him that he would never hurt her. I'm frustrated because I ultimately can't decide whether the book intends this as a sweet romance, or whether the ending is meant to show that you shouldn't respond like that if guys say that to you, because they need help that you can't possibly give. I'm frustrated because the Manic Pixie Dream Boy trope may have been subverted, or it may have been recreated. I'm frustrated because there's such a fatalistic approach to Finch's death, and I can't decide whether the fatalism is written as an view on Finch's illness, or as a critique of the society around him that does nothing to help.

And is this frustration a sign that the book was a success, or a failure? Was it a good treatment of mental illness, or a poor one? In the end, I really don't know.

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All the Bright Places is the latest "big thing" in contemporary young adult fiction, following in the footsteps of The Fault in Our Stars and Eleanor & Park . Like almost every highly-anticipated YA contemporary this year, it's about mental illness and suicide: two teenagers

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In 1998 third eye blind released a song about someone wanting to commit suicide . The song talks about the “jumper” being mad and feeling he does not belong but is hiding his true depression. The singer tells the “jumper” that everyone has problems but its ok and maybe its time to move on. As said by the lead singer stephen jenkins "It's not just a song about some guy offing himself. 'Jumper' is really about understanding. Everyone carries demons around, they carry some sort of scar around. The message of Jumper is that there comes a time when you have to put the past away." I think this song gives a good look at mental ilnesses and life in general because everyone has problems, some have it worse than others but they’re problems none the less.

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Jumper by Third Eye Blind song meaning, lyric interpretation, video and chart position

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(Lexi DeNardo)
In this article by the blog Bustle, it goes into how each of the main characters mental illnesses were portrayed correctly and how Jennifer Niven confronts the stigma surrounding mental illness. In the book one of the most powerful lines is "People rarely bring flowers to a suicide". This article goes in to depth about how the media portrays mental illness as shameful and talks about how Jennifer Niven correctly covered all the bases when it came to Bipolar Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The blog that I found positively reflects mental illnesses as it praises Jennifer Niven on including factual information about the disorders in her book ans portraying the characters in a true way and making the audience fall in love with them. In my opinion the book All the Bright Places was depicted in a completely realistic way and in no way glorified mental illness or suicide. It showed the inner emotions of someone battling suicidal thoughts everyday and sometimes being happy for a couple weeks of time and then falling in to a deep depression. I found it interesting how the article broke down the book into sections about everything they loved about the book and the characters.

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"People rarely bring flowers to a suicide," author Jennifer Niven says in the afterward to her debut YA novel All the Bright Places (Knopf Books for Young Readers). And Niven's treatment of the stigma around mental health and suicide is what rises her novel from the ranks of other teenage love stories. All the Bright Places is the kind of book that anyone struggling with depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, or any mental health concerns ― or anyone who is close to someone who is ― needs to read and absorb into her being. Oh, and that essentially means everyone.

High schoolers Violet Markey and Theodore Finch meet atop the school bell tower, where both have them have gone to contemplate suicide by jumping. And that's the beginning of the story. The two find their way down, and they end up pairing up for a school project sending them to explore the natural wonders of their state. As the two "wander" together, they open up to each other about their pasts, their obsessions with death and suicide, and their families, but just because life seems wonderful now, it doesn't mean that those dark feelings can truly go away.

Mental health and suicide are issues close to Niven's heart. As she says in the book, every 40 seconds someone in the world commits suicide. The author's great-grandfather himself died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. And several years before she wrote All The Bright Places , Niven was the one to discover a friend who had killed himself.

This closeness to the issue clearly fuels Niven's passion for exploring the subject, and that passion has developed into her excellent, precise writing and the honesty of Finch and Violet. She strikes right in the heart of what it's like living with mental illness in contemporary America. With that, she slams the door on the swirling misinformation and misunderstandings that surround it through her memorable characters.

In particular, there are five ways her exploration of mental health is unlike so many other books out there, and why it's so important.

Niven Weaves in Real-Life Voices of Those Who Have Committed Suicide

Virginia Woolf ― who history says suffered from bipolar disorder and who committed suicide by drowning ― plays a major role in bringing Violet and Finch together. They quote passages from her work The Waves back and forth across social media as they are getting to know each other.

Finch also becomes hooked on the words and lives of 1950s-era poet Cesare Pavese committed suicide with sleeping pills and Vladimir Mayakovski, a Russian Revolution poet who shot himself at age 36:

My beloved boatis broken on the rocks of daily life.I've paid my debtsand no longer need to countpains I've suffered at the hands of others.The misfortunesand the insults.Good luck to those who remain.

Though we're reading fiction, the issues it tackles and the voices within the pages are very, very real.

She Knows, As Do Her Characters, That Outsiders Just Don't Understand

Though in different ways, neither Violet's friends nor Finch's family can really grasp that they're suffering. It's an issue that is so clear in our current society, telling those with anxiety to relax or those with depression to cheer up. Yes, we do seem to be getting better at finding, diagnosing, and treating mental illness, but there's still a lack of understanding about a disease that people can't see, that isn't physical.

At one point in particular, Finch describes this so clearly:

I can go downstairs right now and let my mom know how I'm feeling ― if she's even home ― but she'll tell me to help myself to the Advil in her purse and that I need to relax and stop getting myself worked up, because in this house there's no such thing as being sick unless you can measure it with a thermometer under the tongue. Things fall into categories of black and white ― bad mood, bad temper, loses control, feels sad, feels blue.

And that a Big Piece of Mental Illness Is Feeling Trapped In Yourself

While others are prescribing Advil or telling you to stop being blue, people suffering from depression or another mental illness feel trapped and alone in their own head spaces:

It's hard to describe, but I imagine the way I am at this moment is a lot like getting sucked into a vortex. Everything is dark and churning, but slow churning instead of fast, and this great weight pulling you down, like its attached to your feet even if you can't see it. I think, This is what it must feel like to be trapped in quicksand.

And that leads to fear of your own self:

I'm most afraid of Asleep and impending, weightless doom. I'm most afraid of me.

And this whole process of being mentally ill? It's exhausting. Or as characters (no spoilers!) in the novel describe, it makes "a weary traveler who just needs rest."

There's a Stigma, and Those Suffering Can Feel Its Weight

When one of the characters goes to a support group for those who have attempted suicide, it's not an easy process.

I want to get away from these kids who never did anything to anyone except be born with different brains and different wiring ... I want to get away from the stigma they all clearly feel just because they have an illness of the mind as opposed to, say, an illness of the lungs or blood

According to Niven's own stats from Mental Health America, 2.5 million Americans are known to have bipolar disorder, but the actual number of bipolar sufferers is actually closer to three times that. And on the whole, around 80 percent of mental illness goes either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.

That's stigma.

And the stigma leads to people not wanting to be labeled with any disorder of the brain. Because, as Finch so eloquently describes, it can be the first step for people to write you off:

Labels like 'bipolar' say This is why you are the way you are. This is who you are. They explain people away as illnesses.

But, Nivens Knows That Suicide Can Consume Anyone Suffering

Part of the writing is taking stock of everything in my life, like I'm running down a checklist: Amazing girlfriend ― check. decent friends ― check. Roof over my head ― check. Food in my mouth ― check. I will never be short and probably not bald, if my dad and grandfathers are any indication. On my good days, I can out think most people. I'm decent on the guitar and I have an okay voice. I can write songs. Ones that will change the world. Everything seems to be in working order, but I go over the list again and again in case I'm forgetting something, making myself think beyond the big things in case there's something hiding out in the smaller details.

Having a "happy" life does not mean someone can't be suicidal. And I want to give Niven a big hug for understanding that and translating it onto her characters. We know this from real life. As Finch describes in the book, the poet Pavese was the height of his career, well respected and loved, when he took his own life.

This Lack of Understanding Makes People Think Suicide Is Selfish

It's not. Nivens knows that, and hopefully any of her readers will see that, too. As one of the members of the support group for those who have attempted suicide says:

"My sister died of leukemia, and you should have seen the flowers and the sympathy." She holds up her wrists, and even across the table I can see the scars. "But when I nearly died, no flowers were sent, no casseroles were baked. I was selfish and crazy for wasting my life when my sister had hers taken away."

It's a sentiment that Violet understands ― particularly after her older sister dies in a car accident. She believes her parents will see suicide as a "wasteful, hateful, stupid thing to do," in light of her sister's accidental death.

But after getting to know Violet and Finch so deeply, hopefully Niven can correct some of these misconceptions and lend empathy to those suffering from mental illness, reach out to both those suffering and friends of those who are who can help. With her vibrant, funny, and heart-wrenching story All the Bright Places, (which, by the way, is set to be an Elle Fanning movie) she can only be advancing the cause. And that in itself deserves attention.

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We Should All Talk About 'All the Bright Places'

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"People rarely bring flowers to a suicide," author Jennifer Niven says in the afterward to her debut YA novel All the Bright Places (Knopf Books for Young Readers). And Niven's treatment of the stigma around mental health and suicide is what rises he...

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This source is all about how hit TV series, Grey's Anatomy, portrays mental illness within the show. The author of this article is Zakiya Jamal. It was published on February 23, 2017. This article begins by stating that over the past 13 seasons, Grey's Anatomy has addressed many cultural issues including shootings, abuse, rape, and much more. It then zooms in on one specific episode about mental illness. The summary of the episode is given next. A homeless woman comes into the hospital talking about how snakes were trying to grab her. They later discovered she had a pacemaker in need of being replaced. They discovered her ID and contacted her parents. Then they discovered that her parents thought she was kidnapped and killed years ago. The woman was then diagnosed with schizophrenia as well as other mental illnesses that develop in person's late teens and early twenties. At the beginning, she didn't recognize her parents but by the end, she came to realize who they were.

This episode of Grey's Anatomy shows how schizophrenia can affect a normal young adult. The woman was in college and had her own apartment when she wandered away. Her parents believed that she was abducted and killed, they never expected that she wandered away on her own.I believe that this example of mental illness in pop culture is a positive portrayal of the disease.  While it might have been an extreme case where she disappeared for a few years, it was accurate. In the article,  a fact about schizophrenia is explained, " It turned out the woman actually had schizophrenia. As was said on the show, schizophrenia, as well as other mental illnesses, tend to develop in early adulthood, typically in a person's late teens or early 20s. Therefore, the woman's parents didn't even realize that their daughter had a mental illness and assumed she'd been abducted and killed". This helps to show the accuracy of the portrayal because the woman in the show was about 22 years old and she was missing for 2 years. This means that she was 20 when she disappeared.

At the end of the episode, Kelly McCreary, who plays one of the woman's doctors, makes a PSA about mental health awareness. This shows the support that Grey's Anatomy and Shonda Rhimes have for mental illness.

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Throughout Grey's Anatomy's 13 seasons, the show has tackled various issues, including shootings, rape, miscarriages, abuse, and everything in-between. While the show has never shied away from also showing the realness of mental illness, Thursday night's episodes reminded viewers why the show continues to be one of the best on television. Grey's Anatomy addressed mental illness in a powerful way that will stick with viewers for some time.

The storyline began with a homeless woman coming into the hospital and talking about how snakes and other things were touching her and trying to grab her. DeLuca and Riggs weren't sure what was going on at first and followed her as she went behind the desk until she collapsed. They later discovered that she had a very outdated pacemaker that needed to be fixed, but otherwise they didn't really know how to figure out who she was since she had no identification.

Thankfully Riggs had the bright idea to look up her pacemaker ID number, which allowed them to get in contact with the woman's parents. After Maggie and Riggs replaced the pacemaker, the woman's mother arrived at the hospital and was shocked to discover that her daughter was alive. Apparently while she was in college, the woman had disappeared. Her apartment door was open and it looked as if there'd been a struggle, leading the mother to believe her daughter had been abducted. Since it'd been years, she'd assumed her daughter was dead and they'd even had a funeral.

It turned out the woman actually had schizophrenia. As was said on the show, schizophrenia, as well as other mental illnesses, tend to develop in early adulthood, typically in a person's late teens or early 20s. Therefore, the woman's parents didn't even realize that their daughter had a mental illness and assumed she'd been abducted and killed.

When the parents were first reintroduced to their daughter, she didn't recognize them. However, by the end of the episode, she came to realize who they were. Thankfully, with the help of medication, schizophrenia can be manageable, but as the Grey's indicated, if left untreated or undetected, mental illness can be detrimental to one's life.

During a commercial break, Kelly McCreary, who plays Maggie, made a PSA about the importance of mental health, and reminded viewers to get help if they, or someone they know, need it.

The episode and PSA resonated with many fans and it's great that Grey's tackled an issue that isn't talked about enough. Hopefully people will continue to have open discussions about mental illnesses and how they can be treated.

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'Grey's Anatomy' Addressed An Important Issue

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Throughout Grey's Anatomy's 13 seasons, the show has tackled various issues, including shootings, rape, miscarriages, abuse, and everything in-between. While the show has never shied away from also showing the realness of mental illness, Thursday night's episodes reminded viewers why the show continues to be one of the best on television.

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'This Is Us' Showed How Debilitating and Scary an Anxiety Attack Can Be'This Is Us' Showed How Debilitating and Scary an Anxiety Attack Can Be

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'This Is Us' Showed How Debilitating and Scary an Anxiety Attack Can Be'This Is Us' Showed How Debilitating and Scary an Anxiety Attack Can Be

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'This Is Us' Showed How Debilitating and Scary an Anxiety Attack Can Be

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In this week's episode of 'This Is Us' we learn that Randall Pearson has been coping with anxiety since he was a child and experiences crippling panic

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"Uzo Aduba On 'Orange Is the New Black' Season 4, The Big Death and Mental Health"

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"Uzo Aduba On 'Orange Is the New Black' Season 4, The Big Death and Mental Health"

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In this article by Geoff Birkshire, he mainly interviews the producer of the show and asks him about filming and portrayal of characters. I could not find a great article but as an avid lover of the show, I figured that I would be enough to help justify my argument.
In Orange is the New Black, there are many characters who seem to suffer from mental illness. Lolli, Crazy eyes, and Morello. I think that the show gives an accurate depiction of mental illness. They all suffer from differing illnesses. One seeming to be schiczophrenia, another BPD and anxiety, etc. I think that the show does a good job in showing the impulsivity people suffer from. In a scene where Morello breaks into her exes house because she is convinced that they are married, she is later seen crying over this tragedy because she knows what has done is wrong which is very common with impulsivity issues. I believe that the show is depicted realistically in the sense of mental illness in a jail. I would not say that the portrayal of the show is neccesarily positive because one of the characters nickname is crazy eyes, but their actions and symptoms are all pretty true.

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[Spoiler alert: The following interview discusses major plot points from the final three episodes of "Orange Is the New Black" season 4. Do not read until you've finished the season.]
In many ways Uzo Aduba's Suzanne "Crazy-Eyes" Warren has become the heart of Netflix's " Orange Is the New Black." And in season four, that heart is shattered into pieces. The season's final three episodes put Suzanne through one ordeal after another - whether it's an unwelcome physical confrontation with her estranged girlfriend Maureen Kukudio (Emily Althaus), the breakdown during a peaceful protest that results in a chaotic scene and the death of friend and fellow inmate Poussey Washington ( Samira Wiley), or the tragic backstory that finally explains what sent Suzanne to prison.

Variety spoke with two-time Emmy winner Uzo Aduba about filming these "intense" episodes back-to-back, working with "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner for the first time, how the show handles the serious issue of mental illness, and her memories of an intimate send-off dinner with Wiley and co-stars Taylor Schilling and Kate Mulgrew.

How did you find out about Poussey's death in episode 12? I understand a lot of cast members didn't know until they read the script.
I found out because Samira told me. She had texted me that week or the day before, "Do you mind if I come over? I have to tell you something." I got nervous, thinking something was actually wrong with her. She said [Danielle Brooks] is coming over as well. I could tell she was nervous about something. My heart went to a very scared place. She said, "Everything's great, it's not a bad thing."

She came over and said, "Do you have any wine?" I was like, "Something's wrong, what's going on?" She said, "Maybe I should go get some." All I could think was she was nervous to tell me what she's about to say and she needed a glass of wine to say it. She got some wine, poured a glass, and came out to talk to us. By that time Danielle and I were sitting down. Then she said it. It was almost like a movie, our jaws dropped simultaneously. We were just aghast and agape and couldn't believe it.

She said she'd known for a long time, since the beginning of the season. She was very calm about it. I was very glad the creative team, and Jenji in particular, had taken that personal care with her. We are a family at our show, and we take it so seriously and are so in love with working on that show, something like that could be devastating if not handled with care. The fact they did handle that with care, thought and consideration - I had much respect for that. It felt like it continued the consistent way Jenji treats all of us and the characters. [Samira] had the time I think is necessary to mourn and to grieve and process, and to live out the character fully.
And when did you find out about Suzanne's role in that sequence?
They gave us the script - myself and Alan [Aisenberg, who plays the young guard, Bayley], those of us involved in that part of the story. Samira had said, "They're going to tell you all tomorrow," but she wanted to be the one to tell us. They sent us the script because we needed to know this piece of the story we were embarking on. That's how we learned how [Poussey's death] happened, and it took on another scope of significance. It wasn't just losing the character, but how and why this person is no longer with us became even more paramount.
What was it like to shoot? Matthew Weiner was directing on the show for the first time.
It was fantastic. Especially with someone who has such an experience in television and storytelling, we couldn't have had a better person behind the lens working side by side with Jenji. They have a shorthand with one another. And Lauren Morelli who wrote the episode - they were all there. It was a great opportunity to have that conversation and have that time with [Matthew] because he was so familiar with Jenji's vocabulary, and Lauren as well was really able to articulate herself.

I think he also knew the importance of the scene without over-dramatizing it. And when I say that, I mean over-dramatizing our own personal loss of this actor, and [instead] really honing in and focusing on the storytelling that is happening and making sure that is what's being translated - this character who we've come to know and love, what that loss of life looks like, what it looks like to watch potential be extinguished. He was able to really hone in on those things and do the tough work of remaining professional throughout the piece. He knows how to do that, he's had to write some pretty intense stuff himself.

When we were shooting it, I had never lost my voice before, and my voice was gone. We worked a 22- 23-hour shoot that day for just that scene. It was incredible. A lot of us were taxed and tried and exhausted and extinguished. But honestly, it was worth every minute of it.
I also understand the entire cast was on set. Many of the key characters are directly involved in the scene, but everyone wanted to be there.
Yeah, it was the longest call sheet we've had. I'm not even joking, like 70 names - you couldn't even read the names, they had to make the font size like 5, it was so small. Those scenes are always so significant when everyone is brought together. Jenji does that with purpose, so we're all really paying attention and we're no longer splintered in terms of storytelling when we all come together for a singular event - whether it's joyous, or in this case something more upsetting. She did a triumphant job of highlighting [the scene] by bringing every single person into it. The entire storyline we'd been tracking throughout the season stopped completely for this moment. Everyone walks away impacted by this day. Whatever trajectory you follow after that, it is directly affected by this moment emotionally.
I want to back up to episode 11, and the reveal of more of Suzanne's backstory. What was it like reading that script and discovering Suzanne's role in the death of a young boy?
That was intense, to say the least. We've been in this space where we have as a society neglected the health and wellbeing of people battling mental illnesses and behavioral issues. I was so moved to see Suzanne's story because what we were watching was the consequences of that neglect - and how until we really take these things seriously, what can result.

I was really happy and grateful that Nick Jones, who wrote that episode, didn't pass judgment on her or stigmatize her in a way that felt obtuse or careless. He laid out the facts of the matter. Suzanne's intentions are always good. Her heart is always in the right place. Her intention was not for that to happen to Dylan, but unfortunately that was the result. You saw her try to course correct the best way she knew how, try to reprimand a child the best way she knew how - it's like watching little kids try to role play parenting. She needed an adult in that moment to tell her to stop and she didn't have that.

And the guilt she feels from that and the pain that lives inside of her and her inability to manage her emotions fully - you see the other side of that play out with Maureen. She is not in full possession always of herself. It asks a lot of questions: How is it that someone who isn't in full possession of herself winds up in this form of rehabilitation? Is it rehabilitating? Is this the form of treatment she should be receiving? From Suzanne to Lolly (Lori Petty) to Healy (Michael J. Harney) - we are being called through watching these characters to answer for ourselves and how we treat people in society.
Those larger themes really resonate this season because of how much we've come to care about the characters.
That is my hope and my wish. I think that's the power of Jenji's show. She doesn't accuse anyone, audience or character. She's laying out the fact of the matter and how complicated the situation can be. But at the same time knowledge is power, and if you have the knowledge of how certain systems work... I think what she's done brilliantly this season is that the new character is the system. When she brings that character into the mix, we as an audience have to decide if we like that character. I feel like the system is the villain here. You start to see the actions of that character and how those actions matriculate down into the world of Litchfield.
You mentioned Suzanne's relationship with Maureen Kukudio, which takes a turn for the worse this season. How did you prepare for that shocking physical showdown?
Those three episodes back to back, it was unrelenting. But that's what I like about Jenji and the writers, they're not going to back off, they lean in. For Suzanne and Kukudio, firstly my mind went to the song "It's a Thin Line Between Love and Hate." I kept hearing that in my mind. I love Emily Althaus, she's an amazing human being, a phenomenal and generous actor. We got on immediately. Preparing for that fight was hard. I've said before, I have experienced the cost of love, I know what it's like to love as deeply as Suzanne has loved. What I wanted to do was to physicalize what a broken heart looks like. I know what it feels like to be crushed to pieces.

Suzanne battles with her behavior and her mental state, she has moments of feeling lucid and is very clear - like she says, she's not crazy, she's unique. I think that's even more clear this season. Crazy is such an unfair description of someone. She has a different way of thinking. Her pain is so deep, it would be unfair or oversimplified to think she doesn't understand - she's very much aware.

And then the feeling of being misunderstood and being teased. We saw in season two, when she's in that circle and being pushed around, we saw her being picked on. This is something consistent in her life. I think everyone in their life at some point feels they want to stand up and defend themselves. I'm not defending violence but I think we all have a threshold and hers was met on that day. That's how she enacted that heartbreak. It hurt her even more to be teased, mocked by Maureen Kukudio than if any of the other ladies did that. Kukudio has her heart.
And there's the line directly from that to what happens to Poussey, because people aren't paying attention to what's happening to Suzanne.
Exactly, if you don't pay attention and you let the marbles turn as they want to and you're not managing it or treating it, there's no telling what direction it can go in. When we were shooting the fight I had to take a lot of breaks because I knew I didn't want it to be a half step. I know when Suzanne feels broken or beaten or trapped she goes full throttle.

I haven't watched it yet, I've only seen the first episode, I don't know how it looks. I can only go off the experience of the making of it, I can tell you what it felt like. It was very emotional. I remember it almost felt like a conjuring that day. Something else was coming into me that needed releasing. I just wanted to give it all to Suzanne, I feel a deep responsibility to her, but also the Suzannes of the world.

I can't say it enough. I feel like the stigmatization that's so present right now globally in regards to mental health is something that's gone on for too long. I was just in London for six months, and whether I was at home watching the news or in conversations with people, people want to talk about mental health and how we treat mental health and how we look at people battling mental health issues. I'm loving that this is a conversation that feels open and not from a voyeuristic place. People are really interested in starting a real conversation that leads to the work. When we were shooting [season four] last fall, I felt this is for the Suzannes who just aren't being heard.
The show walks the line between comedy and drama, and both Suzanne and Lolly can be very funny characters. How do you find that humor without looking like you're mocking these very important issues about mental health?
That was a concern of mine starting back in season one. When I say I feel protective of Suzanne, it starts from there first. When I started the show I knew, "I can not play to the crazy." How does someone play crazy? When you see people who are battling mentally, it's not like there's one version. This idea of trying to play crazy, I've already lost if I do that.

What [Suzanne] is doing doesn't sound crazy to her. She thinks this all makes sense. We're going to focus on that. That way no matter what she says or does, there's a base. It's like doing comedic plays, you don't want to play to the laugh, you want to say it as sincerely as that person means it. However that is responded to is not my responsibility as an actor. My responsibility is to the character and making sure the life she's living is authentic.

I think where both she and Lolly stop from being the punchline, is because Jenji is also aware of that. She and the writers know the show they're writing, and how easily it could be handled irresponsibly. Jenji is a genius. She knows the story she wants to tell, it becomes more and more clear for viewers every season.

There's a delicate balance with the fun inside the characters - Lolly and Suzanne and Morello (Yael Stone) - and then putting something very heavy into the hands of characters as well. That balances out the comedy. For me it keeps the fire inside of me burning to know this character has something to say.
Going back to Samira's last episodes, I read that Kate Mulgrew organized a dinner for you, Samira and Taylor Schilling. What was that like? I know Kate loves to cook.
She's a legit phenomenal cook. It was amazing. We are a family, a tribe. I love those women - I'm not going to cry because I'm about to go to an event and I have my makeup on - but I love them. Their talent, their spirits, everything. We sat and we talked and we laughed. Kate and Samira live literally right across the street from each other. It was awesome, that's our crew. We had a magical night and it felt like one of the last times while we're still working to have one of those dinners where we're all together. Samira is going to be in my life forever. If she wasn't in my life, I'd kill her. She has no choice. She's stuck with me. But I was just really thankful that Kate organized that for us. It was emotional, a very emotional night. One I won't soon forget.

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Uzo Aduba on 'Orange Is the New Black' Season 4, the Big Death and Mental Health

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Spoiler alert: The following interview discusses major plot points from the final three episodes of "Orange Is the New Black" season 4. Do not read until you've finished the season.] In many ways Uzo Aduba's Suzanne "Crazy-Eyes" Warren has become the heart of Netflix's " Orange Is the New Black."

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"Why Hollywood's depiction of mental illness matters"

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"Why Hollywood's depiction of mental illness matters"

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Amanda Harman
This article by Mark Butler is about a few different films and their inaccurate portrayal of characters who suffer from mental illness.
https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/hollywood-mental-illness-treatment-characters/

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"Movie Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

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"Movie Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

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In this blog called psycritic, the unknown author presents a well structured argument on why mental illness was portrayed in a "monumental" way in this film. They go on to say that the main character, Charlie, although he was actively dealing with some sort of mental illness (which isn't specified in the film or book), he was never defined by it. They close by saying that the portrayal of mental illness is mostly accurate and that the compelling story makes watching this movie worthwhile.

The movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower, in my opinion, positively sheds light to the topic of mental illness. Based on a book of the same name, the movie's main character who clearly deals with some sort of mental illness "is never treated like a psychiatric label". He's never defined by what he's dealing with and is shown enjoying other things especially when he makes friends with a group of seniors whom he really likes. I think this is important because it shows that we shouldn't throw around labels or stereotype people based on their mental illnesses or even in general. The movie did a great job on the story it told, touching the subject of mental illness realistically and even going further into showing that is necessary and okay to ask for help to get better.

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I recently watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and it is one of the best depictions I have ever seen of an adolescent's struggles with trauma and grief. The protagonist is Charlie, played convincingly by Logan Lerman as a quiet teen entering his freshman year. He is utterly friendless at the start of the movie, and the details of his past experiences are only gradually revealed, bit by bit.

Here's what I loved about the movie, and why I think all psychiatrists should see it: Charlie is never treated like a psychiatric label. In fact, no terms like "depression" are used at all in the movie. He, like most of the patients I see, has been through some pretty terrible things. He suffers from a mix of sadness, grief, guilt, anger, and dissociative tendencies, yet he probably does not fit neatly into one specific DSM category. Most importantly, his life is not defined by those symptoms. He likes music and writing, he has hopelessly fallen for a girl named Sam (Emma Watson), and he is a loving brother to two older siblings. The best scenes involve him becoming friends with the school's band of misfits, led by Sam and Patrick (Ezra Miller, in a wonderful performance). We clearly see how these relationships give Charlie joy and a sense of identity.

I also thought the depiction of Charlie's psychiatric hospitalization was very well done. The movie takes place in the early 90's, shortly before the DSM-IV era of psychiatry. Back then, the average length of stay on child and adolescent psychiatry units was on the order of weeks to months, rather than the under one week stays that are so common today. Though the movie does not show how much time elapsed in the hospital, it does give the sense that Charlie was moving into his room for a while. The psychiatrist Dr. Burton (Joan Cusack) appears only briefly, but even so, her concern for Charlie comes through. She is not running down a symptom checklist, spewing psychiatric diagnoses, or pushing pills; rather, she tries to engage Charlie as a person first and foremost, hoping to gain his trust so he would feel safe sharing his most hidden secrets.

The story was certainly clichéd in places: There's the obligatory scene of getting high for the first time, and Charlie's English teacher (Paul Rudd) gives Charlie his treasured copy of The Catcher in the Rye. Are there no other books about teenage alienation? Also, Sam seems remarkably well adjusted given her chaotic backstory. Never once did the movie convince me that her character was someone who would have trouble getting into Penn State.

Still, the brilliance of the actors and the compelling story makes this one of the great coming-of-age tales.

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Movie Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

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I recently watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and it is one of the best depictions I have ever seen of an adolescent's struggles with trauma and grief. The protagonist is Charlie, played convincingly by Logan Lerman as a quiet teen entering his freshman year.

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"People with Depression Use Language Differently--Here's how to spot It"

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"People with Depression Use Language Differently--Here's how to spot It"

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'It's Kind of a Funny Story,' by Ned Vizzini

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'It's Kind of a Funny Story,' by Ned Vizzini

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In this article, Tanya Lee Stone reviews a book called Its kind of a funny story,"  a book about a teenager who faces depression, and anxiety due to the stress of school. He later admits himself into a hospital, rather than taking his own life. While in the hospital he starts to fit in, and he starts to cope with the illness he is facing.

The book shines a bit of positive light on the topic of depression, and how people deal with that. It helps put humor to the illness, and what people think of, but also how they can deal with it. The idea that stress can be a huge impact on the mental illness, and how it can induce depression is accurate. Being someone that has dealt with people with depression, I can say that the way they go about it in the book, is a good way to deal with it. That's what i use to help my brother that deals with depression, just doing something to make him laugh helps a lot. The one thing that does paint depression inaccurately, is the progression the main character goes through. Depression doesn't usually quickly, like a broken dam, but rather builds up, and most people don't know the signs of it. The progression out of depression is also not as quick as it is in the book, again it takes a while to pull people out of the pit that depression is.

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"It's Kind of a Funny Story" may seem like an odd title for a book with such weighty themes as adolescent depression and "suicidal ideation," until you recall the last time you burst out laughing at a solemn or inappropriate moment. Laughter is one way to cope with pressure, and that's what Ned Vizzini's insightful and utterly authentic new novel is all about - the insidious kind of pressure teenagers face in a success-oriented society that values product over process, scores over scholarship and extracurriculars over extra innings.

Vizzini's first book, "Teen Angst? Naaah . . ." was a collection of pieces about his years at Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School; he was 19 when it was published. The author, now 25, also drew on parts of his life for his second book, a novel, "Be More Chill." His new novel takes us into heavy autobiographical territory: it's based on Vizzini's brief stay in a psychiatric hospital. His protagonist, however, has a strong and clear voice of his own. Craig Gilner is a palpably real character worthy of a place in the reader's long-term memory.

Craig becomes dysfunctional and severely depressed after driving himself relentlessly to get accepted into Executive Pre-Professional High School, "set up to create the leaders of tomorrow." Graduates of this pressure cooker "end up being, like, president," if they don't end up on the psych ward first. Once he's admitted to the school, Craig realizes that staying there is the true challenge. Just reading about his assignments is anxiety-producing - nine classes, unbearable reading lists, four hours of homework a night. One class requires reading two hefty daily newspapers and analyses of the stock market. Within months Craig has "stress vomiting for the first time." The more behind he gets, the more paralyzed he is, until he contemplates jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. Instead, he calls 1-800-SUICIDE and checks himself into a nearby hospital. His mom's response when he calls from the E.R. is touching: "I am so proud of you. . . . This is the bravest thing you've ever done."

Vizzini's humor runs deep, focused not only on the comic impact of any given line, but on the role of humor itself, the necessity of laughter and the realization that it's O.K., even necessary, to lighten up when things seem bad. When Craig starts to share a laugh about a fellow patient, he stops himself. "I bite my tongue. I can't help it. I shouldn't be laughing at any of these people . . . but maybe it's O.K., somewhere, somehow, because we're enjoying life?" Insights abound, from the profound (everybody has problems, some people just hide it better than others) to the entertaining: "When a man puts on his first piece of jewelry, there's no turning back." And when Craig discovers drawing as an outlet for healing, his art takes a refreshingly original form, creating beauty from confusion.

For some, it may not ring true that Craig adjusts so quickly to life on the ward, falling into the rhythm of the patients' various shticks with ease, though his relief-based high from jumping off the treadmill could explain it. That he achieves so much during a five-day stay - inspiring a perpetual sleeper to join the living, starting a (possibly unwise) relationship with a skittish girl - also pushes the limits of believability. The most obvious solution to Craig's problem doesn't occur to him until the end, but that is entirely plausible, as it's his entanglement in the responsibility of meeting expectations that has made him lose sight of other options.

One of the most disturbing realities present in this novel is the many characters who need meds to cope with getting through school. We root for Craig to heal, and we root for all the others in the same boat - perhaps piloted by much more demanding parents than Craig's. This is an important book, not only because it will help teenagers recognize unhealthy expectations and know there are alternative choices, but also because it could enlighten adults who are making their kids crazy. Of course, these grownups may not know who they are - so if you do, be sure to give them this book.

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'It's Kind of a Funny Story,' by Ned Vizzini

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"It's Kind of a Funny Story" may seem like an odd title for a book with such weighty themes as adolescent depression and "suicidal ideation," until you recall the last time you burst out laughing at a solemn or inappropriate moment.

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This article is a review about why Jennifer Niven's "All The Bright Places" portrayed mental illnesses in a poor way. The author of this article, "Review: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven", is Alex Townsend.

Most of the adults in the book, from therapists to parents, just seemed clueless. No one knew what they were talking about, doing, or just didn’t seem like they cared about the kids at all. That is one of the many reasons why this books portrayal of a mental illness is very inaccurate. If a teacher or parent suspected, let alone knew that you had a mental illness and/or wanted to kill yourself, they would do something to get you help. Like Townsend said in this article, "'All The Bright Places' is not a book for people with depression.  It’s a book for people with friends who commit suicide." People with depression or other mental illnesses need to believe that they can get better, or trust an adult, but this book makes it seem like it will all be easier if you just died. I think that this book portrayed mental illnesses inaccurately and leaves depressed readers with no hope to get better.

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I went into All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven with my guard up. No matter how good or bad the book was, I knew a story about depression was likely to trigger my own. No surprise, it did. All the Bright Places is a beautifully written book that is, at times, very difficult to read.

I'd like to warn the reader up front that this review will have some pretty big spoilers.

All the Bright Places is about two teens with depression. Violet's sister died in a car accident the previous year and Violet blames herself for it. Finch has a long history of acting out and having sudden extreme mood swings. It is heavily implied that he is also bi-polar. At the start of the book both teens have suicidal thoughts, but Finch manages to talk Violet off of a ledge and Violet becomes Finch's new reason for living. From there the story becomes about their budding romance as well as their personal growth. They learn about themselves and each other while exploring the hidden wonders of Indiana.

Violet and Finch are both very well-written and developed characters. It's interesting to see them evolve and to understand more of their personal histories. It's poignant, slice-of-life stuff and the John Green comparisons are sure to pop up. As a representation of how it feels to be depressed, All the Bright Places does a great job. I connected with the way Finch needed to find an active reason to stay alive, how he regularly pushed himself to physical exertion to feel life pumping through him, but still couldn't stop himself from thinking about all the ways people have killed themselves. It's a great illustration of the contradictions that can fill a person with depression.

However, now we come to the book's greatest flaw: this is not a book for people with depression. I would absolutely not recommend it for anyone with depression who was looking for representation. The problem, and this is the big spoiler I mentioned, is that one of the protagonists kills himself. I was worried about this for the entire book. I kept flipping ahead and peaking at the last page, knowing what I saw and hoping I was wrong.

Of the two, Finch is the character with the more deep-rooted mental issues. It's made clear through the book that he's had suicidal thoughts for years, which hasn't been made easier by years of bullying in school, an absent mother, and an abusive father. Being with Violet makes things better for a time, but as the book progresses I could see his dark thoughts coming back. In the end, he runs away from home and isn't heard from for weeks. Finally Violet finds him, drowned in a lake where they'd had a date.

Suicide is a delicate topic to put in any story. Sometimes it's used for sensationalism and sometimes it's meant to illustrate poignant tragedy. In a book about depression though, it's simply an essential element to discuss. Sadly, depression and suicide go together all too often in the real world. Unfortunately, Finch's suicide is one that is handled poorly, ruining much of the book.

Once Finch dies, I feel that All the Bright Places really shows its true colors. I have seen this novel advertised as a story about teenage depression, but I don't think that's quite right. It's a book for people with friends who commit suicide. The author admits at the end that it was an experience she went through herself and the last chunk of the story is all about Violet coping with losing Finch.

In his absence Finch goes from being an interesting, well-rounded character to a manic pixie dream-boy. Prior to killing himself he left all sort of special messages for Violet to find, final love letters to the wonder of their romance. During this section Violet doesn't question what was going through Finch's mind or the tragedy of suicide. Instead it's all about finding the next whimsical message and ultimately giving Violet the strength to move on with her life.

It all left me incredibly sad and angry. Depression is a terrible illness that will regularly make a person believe the worst things about themself. It's painful and it's deadly and anyone with it knows that it's daily struggle to find reasons to stay alive. Yes, there are wonderful people like Finch who lose that battle, but that isn't the message that teens need to read about. What anyone with depression desperately needs is hope. We need to believe that we can get better, that we can get to a place somehow where we can function without that little voice saying "This would all be easier if you just died." All the Bright Places does not leave the depressed reader with that hope. Instead it says, "If you die the right way, you can end up being an inspiration to others."

The book also does an awful job of portraying the means to recovery for depression or any mental illness. In the fashion of any 90's coming-of-age story, Violet and Finch both grow and evolve entirely through talking to each other, whimsical adventures, and abstract philosophy. While those things might help some people, things like therapy and medication are often essential. In All the Bright Places both standard treatment methods are shown in a very negative light. Therapists are well-meaning adults who don't really understand at best, or at worst will put in minimal effort to try and get the depressed kid back in line. At one point Violet finds Finch living in his bedroom closet and suggests therapy to him, only to have him run away. That winds up being the last time she sees him. She partially blames herself for his death because she pushed him to seek help.

The only mention of medication comes when Finch drops in on a suicidal teens support group and sees several kids with "the dull, vacant look of people on drugs". No one explains the benefits of antidepressants. Instead any hint of medical treatment is treated with disgust and outdated ideas. Finch says that medication will take away who you are or that or a medical label like "bipolar" will only reduce you to a crazy case-study. This notion is never refuted.

It's painful because the writing and the characters are wonderfully well-crafted, but if you're looking for a book about depression I'd pass on this one. The demonization of proper treatment, the presence of possibly preventable suicide, and the sudden transformation of Finch into a manic pixie dream-boy all weigh the story down too much. Save yourself the heartache and read something with a bit more hope.

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Review: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

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I went into All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven with my guard up. No matter how good or bad the book was, I knew a story about depression was likely to trigger my own. No surprise, it did. All the Bright Places is a beautifully written book that is, at times, very difficult to read.

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"Movie 'Split" does Harm to People with Dissociative Identity Disorder, Experts Say"

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"Movie 'Split" does Harm to People with Dissociative Identity Disorder, Experts Say"

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In the article "Movie 'Split' does Harm to People with Dissociative Identity Disorder, Experts Say," author Kristen FIscher elaborates on how the film may have a negative effect on people with the same disease. Elizabeth Howell, a psychotherapist from New York claims that the film increases the risk of dangerous attitudes emerging from people without the illness and damage done to people with the illness. In a study of 173 people with DID, only 3% were charged with an offense, while even less were fined or charged with an offense.

This example shows how DID is misunderstood. It takes a viewpoint from the movie that causes people to think that the disease is more destructive than it is and tries to change that view with real facts. This article attempts to show how the disease is misrepresented in the movie. Fischer claims "he [the lead actor] did not even sit down with a DID patient while preparing for the role." (Fischer) Here she is claiming that the actor just assumed how to act instead of getting a real feel for how those affected really are.

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M. Night Shyamalan is typically praised as a filmmaker who creates unusual stories, but his new movie "Split" has come under fire.

In the movie, a man with dissociative identity disorder (DID) kidnaps three girls, frightening and harming them.

While the star, James McAvoy, gives a dramatic performance as the villain, the movie has irked some medical professionals.

They say the film stigmatizes the disorder and may have a negative impact on people who have the condition.

Elizabeth Howell, a psychotherapist from New York, said the film raises the potential for dangerous attitudes to emerge and for people with the illness to be damaged.

Colleagues who have seen the film said it is not an accurate portrayal of someone with DID, she told Healthline.

"It is a disservice," Howell said. "This is a common plot device. The serial murderer turns out to have DID. Why not have the plot be about a sociopath like Ted Bundy? Much more plausible."

Between 1 and 3 percent of people in the world have DID.

The movie may imply that someone with DID could be violent, but experts say those people are more likely to hurt themselves than others.

In a statement about the movie, the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) cited a soon-to-be-released study of 173 people with DID.

The researchers found that only 3 percent were charged with an offense, 1.8 percent were fined, and less than 1 percent were in jail over a six-month span. No convictions or probations were reported in that time period.
Read more: Get the facts on personality disorders "
What is DID?

DID used to be referred to as multiple personality disorder.

It is described by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) as a disorder that forms when someone is trying to escape reality - often because they experience a traumatic situation such as abuse.

As a result, the people with DID shift between separate identities they form inside themselves to escape the trauma.

These personalities may have names, traits, mannerisms, and distinctive voices. When the person switches between personas, they experience memory gaps.

People with DID have out-of-body-like experiences. They may feel like voices are trying to control or possess them.

And they may also experience anxiety and depression.

Dr. Peter Barach, a clinical psychologist in Cleveland, told Healthline that most people are not diagnosed with DID right away because most mental health professionals are not trained to recognize the disorder.

Most adults with DID have been in the mental health system for several years. They may have received six or seven other diagnoses before DID is accurately identified.

Long-term therapy and medication are used to treat the disorder. Sometimes hospitalization is needed to stabilize a person with DID and ensure their safety.

"The psychotherapy helps the person to stabilize their symptoms and improve their ability to function in daily life," Barach said. "Once the person is stabilized, the treatment works on processing the traumatic memories that interfere with daily functioning, self-esteem, relationships, and personal safety."

"A large percentage of people with DID have made potentially lethal attempts to kill themselves," he added. "The last part of treatment involves helping the 'alters' [parts of the self that experience themselves as separate people] to function in a more integrated and consistent way."
Read more: Mental health problems for college students are increasing "
Making the movie

McAvoy told the " Today Show " that he watched video diaries made by people with DID and inquired about it with medical professionals.

However, he did not sit down with a DID patient while preparing for the role.

The ISSTD statement criticized those involved in the movie, in particular the filmmaker.

"With respect to Mr. Shyamalan's ability to write and direct truly frightening movies, depicting individuals with this, or any other mental disorder, does a disservice to his artistic ability and to the over 20 percent of the population who, at some time or another, struggle with some form of mental illness," the ISSTD statement said. "It acts to further marginalize those who already struggle on a daily basis with the weight of stigma."
Read more: 'Toxic masculinity' leads to mental health problems for men "
Impacts of the film

Dr. Sheldon Itzkowitz, a New York-based psychologist and psychoanalyst, said he had not seen the movie - and doesn't plan to.

"What concerns me is how the film may inadvertently demonize people who are truly suffering. DID is a disorder that has its etiology in the worst form of human suffering - the abuse of innocent children," Itzkowitz told Healthline.

He said many of his patients with DID are highly functioning people whose friends and co-workers don't know how much the person may be affected by their condition.

When films and stories "vilify and demonize mental illness in general, and DID in particular," the viewer does not understand how hard it can be for that person to survive, he added.

As such, one of his colleagues views DID as a form of resilience. It is the "mind's effort at trying to cope with overwhelming and terrifying trauma, often at the hands of people who were supposed to care for and protect the child," Itzkowitz said.

Barach, who also had not seen the movie when he was interviewed by Healthline, said that the media is fascinated with mental illness as a cause of violence.

"Unfortunately, nearly all of the media depictions of DID are sensationalized. They sometimes depict treatment that would be considered unethical," he added.

Barach said the movie reviews have led him to believe that the movie will not help society better understand DID. It will only add to the stigma of mental illness in our society.

"I wish the media would understand that people with DID suffer greatly and do everything they can to hide or 'cover' their symptoms, which they find embarrassing and often disabling," he said.

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movie split multiple personality disorder

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movie split dissociative identity disorder

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Split: Why Mental Health Experts Are Critical of the Movie

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M. Night Shyamalan is typically praised as a filmmaker who creates unusual stories, but his new movie "Split" has come under fire. In the movie, a man with dissociative identity disorder (DID) kidnaps three girls, frightening and harming them. While the star, James McAvoy, gives a dramatic performance as the villain, the movie has irked some medical professionals.

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"Feed" tries to explain eating disorders in a whole new way

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"Feed" tries to explain eating disorders in a whole new way

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In the movie "Feed" by Troian Bellisario, she explains the story about how after losing her twin brother, she slowly develops anorexia which completely changed her life. In reality, she never did actually lose her brother but she wanted to convey that because it shows just how close somebody with this type of disorder can be to you and just how easily you can lose them. She does a really good job by portraying this because she doesn't focus a lot of number of weights or calories but more about the healthy choices she does make in order to create a more positive environment for herself.
I think that this was a positive portrayal of this mental illness because it encourages people to get better and better their lives.
https://themighty.com/2017/12/the-best-and-most-controversial-portrayals-of-mental-illness-in-2017/

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"Portrayal of Mental Illness on Netflix's 13 Reasons Why"

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"Portrayal of Mental Illness on Netflix's 13 Reasons Why"

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In the article, "Portrayal of Mental Illness on Netflix's 13 Reasons Why," author Erlanger A. Turner Ph.D.  brings up the previously discussed thought that the show "13 Reasons Why" falsely portrayed depression. He went on to discuss that many have seeked to get the show taken off Netflix. Instead, the show now has a warning at the beginning, and has signs of depression on their website. Also, the article includes warning signs of depression, and a list of things we all could do to help.

In the article it says, "While the show serves as a 'conversation starter' for mental illness and suicide, it fails to demonstrate the availability of evidence-based mental healthcare." I agree with this one-hundred percent. The show caused many families to bring up the conversation, but it falsely portrays the fact that no one tried to stop her. I feel it was no help to anyone dealing with a mental illness, but it did help with starting a conversation.

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This week was designated as National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week. A new Netflix series - 13 Reasons Why - has sparked a lot of dialogue about depression and suicide prevention. In the show, the main character, Clay, seeks to understand why his crush and classmate decided to end her life. Many have spoken out against the show and some have expressed a desire for it to be canceled ( see article from CNN). As a member of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP), I was glad to see the organization make a statement on 13 Reasons Why (read here). It notes, "While the show serves as a 'conversation starter' for mental illness and suicide, it fails to demonstrate the availability of evidence-based mental healthcare." In response to the recent controversy, Netflix has added a warning to the beginning of the show and created a website with information about mental health resources.
Warning Signs of Depression
According to the National Institute of Mental Health ( NIMH), depression symptoms vary for individuals and may include the following symptoms:

Persistent sad, anxious, or "empty" mood.

Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism.

Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness.

Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies or activities.

Decreased energy, fatigue, or being "slowed down."

Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions.

Difficulty sleeping, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping.

Appetite and/or weight changes.

Thoughts of death or suicide or suicide attempts.

Restlessness or irritability.

Aches or pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems without a clear physical cause and/or that do not ease even with treatment.

In a previous post, I provided information on suicide and suicide prevention. One of the first steps in helping someone with depression and suicide being aware of the warning signs. People may not always be open about their emotional state, so if you can recognize these signs it helps to start a conversation. Be sure to listen and stay calm.
What You Can Do to Help
It can be hard to identify if someone is depression and even more difficult to know how to respond when someone opens up about being depressed. The first thing to do is recommend or help the person find a mental health provider or psychologist. Below are some additional suggestions from the NIMH to help those you know.

Offer support, understanding, patience, and encouragement.

Never ignore comments about suicide, and report them to your loved one's health care provider or therapist.

Invite him or her out for walks, outings, and other activities.

Help him or her adhere to the treatment plan, such as setting reminders to take prescribed medications.

Help him or her by ensuring that he or she has transportation to therapy appointments.

Remind him or her that, with time and treatment, the depression will lift.

Additional Resources Copyright 2017 Erlanger A. Turner, Ph.D.

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Portrayal of Mental Illness on Netflix's 13 Reasons Why

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This week was designated as National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week. A new Netflix series - 13 Reasons Why - has sparked a lot of dialogue about depression and suicide prevention. In the show, the main character, Clay, seeks to understand why his crush and classmate decided to end her life.

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In the article "How Realistic Is 'A Beautiful Mind'?", ABC News writes about the actor Russell Crowe's portrayal of Nobel Prize John Nash in the movie "A Beautiful Mind." In the movie, Nash is diagnosed with schizophrenia and needs to take anti-psychotic drugs. He eventually stops takings the drugs because they make him feel uncomfortable and decides to will the disease away. The article states that only 1 in 5 people diagnosed with schizophrenia will fully recover and only with the help of the drugs. So the idea of willing it away is, as Dr. Ken Davis say, "ludicrous." The article also claims that voices, unlike in the movie, are more common experienced by schizophrenia patients than visions.
I think that the movie portrays mental illness in a very realistic way because it's pretty much a documentary. I don't think that Professor Nash or his family would allow the movie to be made if there were flaws in the way his schizophrenia was portrayed. Even in the article, Dr. Davis claims that "Crowe does a brilliant job of portraying the mannerisms, and some of the behaviors of a schizophrenic." And if a doctor says his portrayal is good enough, why would I disagree? And I do believe it was a positive portrayal because, not only was it realistic, but it also gave other schizophrenics hope seeing Prof. Nash overcome it. And hope is never a bad thing.

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Mental health experts are applauding A Beautiful Mind for creating a better understanding of schizophrenia, although some say the Hollywood version of John Nash's life does sometimes take liberties with medical realities.

In the movie, Russell Crowe plays Nash, a brilliant mathematician who came up with the game theory of economics and won the Nobel Prize, decades later, in 1994. At age 31, he develops schizophrenia and suffers a mental breakdown.

Because of his hallucinations and bizarre behavior, Nash is eventually placed on anti-psychotic drugs. But in the film, he stops taking the drugs after finding that they dull his senses, emotions and sex drive. Instead, he gets a handle on the disease through sheer force of will.

About 1 percent of the population will develop schizophrenia in their lifetime, and more than 2 million Americans suffer from it in a given year. Experts say that only one in five will recover completely - and they probably won't be able to do it through willpower alone.

"Crowe does a brilliant job of portraying the mannerisms, and some of the behaviors of a schizophrenic - the best I have ever seen on the screen," Dr. Ken Davis, chairman of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, told ABCNEWS.com. "On the other hand, the notion that willpower can really overcome schizophrenia is ludicrous."

Drugs, Therapy and Emotional Support

Contrary to public perception, schizophrenia is not the same as having a split personality or a multiple personality. People with schizophrenia have trouble distinguishing between what is real and what is imaginary, and may be withdrawn or have trouble expressing normal emotions in social situations. To manage the illness over a lifetime, most schizophrenics rely on a combination of medications, therapy and the support of friends and family.

In the film, Nash relies on anti-psychotic drugs during the worst periods of his illness, and his illness flares up when he is not taking them, then seems to improve.

"The truth is, the vast majority of schizophrenics will only have partial recovery, and that only with the help of the medication," ABCNEWS' Dr. Tim Johnson said. "But [medication is] not so useful in controlling or helping the social isolation that so many schizophrenics experience."

Some doctors are worried that schizophrenic patients who see the film might come to believe they're smart enough to beat their illness without medication.

"I have not seen the movie, but many of my patients have," said Dr. Adelaide Robb of Children's National Medical Center in Washington. "I do not think that patients should go off medication and rely on willpower. People who are highly intelligent cannot just will away psychotic symptoms."

A Positive Message

Despite Nash's rejection of medication, one doctor said the movie does send a positive message about willpower.

"Some individuals with schizophrenia suffer needlessly from the idea that they have absolutely no control over the illness," said Dr. Steve Lamberti, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y. "While one cannot simply will the disease away, many people do learn to cope effectively with schizophrenia."

Although in the movie, Nash copes with his symptoms by ignoring his hallucinations, another active way to exercise willpower is to participate actively in treatment, Lamberti said.

Davis said Nash is an unusual case because he ultimately learned to ignore his hallucinations.

"Although he continued to believe his delusions he would not let them consume him," Davis said.

Voices More Common Than Visions

In the movie, Nash sees nonexistent "people" and carries on conversations with them. It makes for glitzy filmmaking, but it's certainly not what your average schizophrenic experiences, experts say.

"The movie's portrayal of Dr. Nash seeing and conversing with life-like 'people' is not what most individuals who suffer from schizophrenia experience," Lamberti said.

Instead, most schizophrenics are besieged by one or more voices that seem to come out of thin air. Those who do have visual hallucinations tend to see things that are distorted, almost "cartoonish," not lifelike as they were in the film, Johnson said. The movie was on target when it came to delusions, which are typical for schizophrenics, experts say.

Nash believed he was doing top-secret government work that could save the United States and that he was being followed by Russians. Doctors would call the former a grandiose delusion and the latter a paranoid delusion, Lamberti said. Both types are common.

Medicine Can't Cure All

While in a mental institution, Nash is treated with insulin coma therapy, in which patients are given insulin to induce a comatose state that lasts about 15 to 60 minutes. The results, as shown in the movie, are horrific.

The treatment has been discredited and is no longer used.

"The difficulty in the treatment, and side effects, as well as its inability to sustain remission, led to its disuse," Davis said.

Insulin therapy ended, in part, because of the introduction of anti-psychotic drugs.

In the movie, Nash has hallucinations and delusions even when taking his medications. When he doesn't take them, he loses control.

But the medications aren't able to address some of his negative symptoms, such as difficulty concentrating, social withdrawal and lack of motivation.

"The movie's message that medications are an important part of treatment, although they aren't a cure-all, is an accurate message," Lamberti said.

Doctors say it is also significant that Nash seems to benefit from the loving support of his wife, played by Jennifer Connelly, and by being in the familiar environs of Princeton University while he is recovering.

"An environment that is structured, predictable and supportive is helpful for most individuals with schizophrenia," Lamberti said. "The movie also showed how important family support is to those who suffer from schizophrenia. The importance of family support has been increasingly recognized in the field of psychiatry over the past 20 years, and new forms of family education and treatment have been developed."

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Mental health experts are applauding A Beautiful Mind for creating a better understanding of schizophrenia, although some say the Hollywood version of John Nash's life does sometimes take liberties with medical realities. In the movie, Russell Crowe plays Nash, a brilliant mathematician who came...

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Kerry Magro, an author who is on the autism spectrum gives her review of the new ABC TV show "The Good Doctor."  In her article, "My review of 'The Good Doctor'  as an adult with autism", Magro talks about how she believes that the actor,, Freddie Highmore, who plays the character with autism and savant syndrome really portrays that mental illness well. She notes some characteristics of an autism diagnosis that Highmore does well in presenting. The author makes a point that she will like to see people with disabilities and mental illnesses, like autism, to be in the entertainment industry.

I believe that this show gives a pretty good example of how someone on the autism spectrum might think. Sure, it doesn't give every detail about autism. Magro makes an important point saying that "there is no 'one size fits all' in attempting to define characters on the spectrum." Because the autism spectrum is so broad, this show can't really definitively say "this is what autism is like". Not everyone with autism has the same traits and personalities as the main character on The Good Doctor. Despite that, the show gives the audience a good idea of what one person dealing with autism and savant syndrome might act.

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This blog is by Kerry Magro, an award-winning international motivational speaker and best-selling author who's on the autism spectrum. A version of this blog originally appeared on Kerrymagro.com.
Full disclosure: After only watching one episode, I have no idea what the future is for " The Good Doctor " (which premiered Sep. 25,2017 at 10/9C on ABC). What I can tell you: this show has all the makings of an ABC smash hit.

Let's begin with the cast. Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory) stars as Dr. Shaun Murphy, an up-and-coming surgeon who also happens to have autism and savant syndrome. This is a very difficult role for anyone to play given how broad the autism spectrum truly is. Some criticism has occurred as many TV productions and films try to address autism issues. There is no "one size fits all" in attempting to define characters on the spectrum. This list in recent years includes characters such as Walter Hill in Joyful Noise, Billy in the new Power Rangers Movie, Jane in Jane Wants a Boyfriend, and most recently in Sam Gardener, a high-functioning teen with autism in Netflix's Atypical.

There seems to be an obsession with autism political correctness in some autism-related projects. Producers strive for realism in portraying these autistic characters with the danger of not clearly understanding the individuality of each person on the spectrum. It's a razor's edge. Trying to avoid producing "inspiration porn" but also making the programming meaningful to those in the autism community. Atypical, which received mostly positive reviews (77% rating from critics and 97% rating from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes) for example also received some criticism for not hiring an autism consultant who was on the spectrum to help bring a realistic portrayal of the role. To be fair, Atypical had a full-time consultant in the fabulous Michelle Dean along with the help from Exceptional Minds, a computer animation studio and non-profit digital arts school for young adults on the autism spectrum. Exceptional Minds worked on some shots for The Good Doctor team and also had a role with Atypical.

The Good Doctor does a fine job of navigating this razor's edge. Freddie does well in his debut, showing several characteristics that can accompany an autism diagnosis. These characteristics include things such as social awkwardness, lack of eye contact, playing with his hands during stressful situations, etc. That last one is still something I do to this day as an adult who is on the autism spectrum. Freddie's take will resonate with many in the community. It will be interesting to see how his character evolves moving forward into the season.

What really stood out to me though was the discussion during one scene where they are deciding Dr. Murphy's fate and how people with autism lack empathy. How can they be sympathetic to patients and their families? It was refreshing to see Dr. Murphy have the opportunity to show his ability to care for others when asked point blank "why do you want to be a surgeon?" based off a traumatic event in Shaun's history. I had to pause the show because I was sobbing like a baby.

While many in the autism community may tune in for Dr. Murphy, autism is only one component of the show that will draw viewers. Based on statistics from the Department of Labor, a majority of those with disabilities in the U.S. today are unemployed. Discussing the hiring of someone with a disability highlights its importance. There are other areas that come to mind including relationships in the workplace, safety and different types of ways people learn. Dr. Murphy for example thinks in pictures (as can be seen when he's on screen when he's visualizing the human body or trying to remember a definition of a specific word).

This show has staying power and I can only hope the creators of the show along with Sony and ABC will continue to include voices of those on the spectrum as the show continues.

Dr. Glassman, who first met Dr. Murphy at 14, said it best during a Board of Directors meeting when he said...

"Aren't we judged by how we treat people? I don't mean as doctors I mean as people. Especially those who don't have the same advantages that we have. We hire Shaun and we give hope to those people with limitations that those limitations are not what they think they are. That they do have a shot. We hire Shaun and we make this hospital better for it."

A quote I tell audiences when I travel the country speaking is that, "Autism can't define me. I define autism." Shaun and I are not defined by our diagnosis.

I hope that we can give this show a shot and if we do, like giving Dr. Murphy a shot at employment and something he enjoys, we will all be pleasantly surprised by the results.

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My review of 'The Good Doctor' as an adult with autism

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This blog is by Kerry Magro, an award-winning international motivational speaker and best-selling author who's on the autism spectrum. A version of this blog originally appeared on Kerrymagro.com. Full disclosure: After only watching one episode, I have no idea what the future is for " The Good Doctor " (which premiered Sep.

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"This kind of character is so important to show because oftentimes depression doesn’t “look” like what we think it does."
In the article "8 TV Shows That Got Mental Illness (mostly) Right"  author Juliette Virzi displays many popular and modern day TV shows that display a character or characters with some sort of mental illness, and for the most part, they do a pretty good job of it.

The part of the article that stood out to me was about the show "Parks and Recreation" , this is a very humorous and lighthearted show, one that I often watch when i need something upbeat and funny, but It does accurately portray one of the characters with depression. The character Chris Traeger suffers from depression but he is not defined by it in this show. Chris goes through periods of happiness where he seems to be handling things fine, but he spirals into depressive states that leave him unable to do a lot of everyday activities. I think this is really helpful and accurate because a lot of people suffer from extremely depressive episodes, some worse than others. I think it is also very helpful that the Chris's character is not defined by his depression and the shows portrays other positive parts of him, not just his illness.
https://themighty.com/2017/10/good-portrayals-mental-illness-tv-shows/

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13 Reasons Why: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

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13 Reasons Why: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

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In the popular tv show "13 Reasons why", it is based off a teenage girl who suffers from mental illness and takes her own life.  In the article "13 Reasons Why: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly"  written by Deborah Serani , it summarizes the good and bad ways the mental illness is displayed in this show. It shows how it can be realistic but how in some ways it can very unrealistic.
My example shows mental illness because the whole storyline is about how the young girl suffers from depression and then eventually takes her own life. At times it can be a positive portrayal by showing realistic things but other times there is scenarios that wouldn't actually happen in real life. The article I chose represents both, it talks about the good but it also talks about the bad and explains things well. An example from the article is, "13 Reasons Why also glamorizes suicide, with decorated lockers, pep rallies, students taking selfies by Hannah's locker, mysterious packages, audio taped travel hunts, and even flashback scenes that keep Hannah "alive" in the series.

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"YouTube star Logan Paul's rise and fall from internet fame"

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"YouTube star Logan Paul's rise and fall from internet fame"

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In the article, "YouTube star Logan Paul's rise and fall from internet fame"  author Madeline Farber discusses Logan Paul after he posted a video which showed the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan. This article was about how Logan Paul  posted a controversial video, which was taken down, Paul and his companions came across the body in the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji -- a frequent site of suicides in the country.

In this article they portray mental illness as a problematic situation because they feel like people take advantage and make fun of people with mental illnesses. like for example in this article Logan Paul was being mindless and making jokes about somebody killing themselves. But i did find this article to be very interesting because it shows how mental illness is a big problem and how something so little can have a major impact. I also found this article to be revealing because Logan Paul did get a lot of hate from this from everybody so it was neat to see how many people actually back up people with mental illnesses.

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In early January, YouTube star Logan Paul received a wave of criticism after he posted a video which showed the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan. And now he's facing criticism again -- this time, from animal rights group, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

In a new video uploaded on his YouTube channel, Paul uses a stun gun on rats.

"Are we using weapons for this?" Paul asks his two friends in the video. He then pulls out a stun gun from his waist and zaps the rats, which are already dead. "No rat comes into my house without getting tased," Paul adds.

"Yo, he's already dead," his friend replies, while throwing the dead rat carcasses in a trash can. But Paul uses the stun gun on the rodents once more.

PETA is calling for the video to be removed.

"This sort of content has no place on YouTube or anywhere else, as it could desensitize young people to cruelty to animals," PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange told TMZ.

YouTube suspended Paul after he posted the initial video, though the company was also criticized for how long it took to respond to it (Variety reported that YouTube waited 11 days before addressing the controversy). The social media star returned to the video sharing platform weeks later with a new 7-minute suicide prevention video.

In the video, Paul speaks to suicide prevention experts and a man who survived his own suicide attempt. He then pledges to donate $1 million to various suicide prevention groups.

"I know I've made mistakes, I know I've let people down. But what happens when you're given an opportunity to help make a difference in the world? It's time to learn from the past as I get better and grow as a human being. I'm here to have a hard conversation so that those who are suffering can have easier ones," Paul said in the new video.

In light of recent controversies, here's what you need to know about Logan Paul.

Why was the YouTuber initially criticized?

In a controversial video, which was taken down, Paul and his companions came across the body in the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji -- a frequent site of suicides in the country. The Internet personality recorded video of the encounter and posted it with the title, "We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest."

In the video, Paul seems aware that the site is sometimes chosen for suicides, but is surprised to come across what appears to be a body hanging from a tree.

"Yo, are you alive?" he says in the video. "Are you f--king with us?"

Paul also posted a more sanguine video on YouTube shortly after, showing him romping through a Tokyo park, talking about his apparel brand, visiting gadget stores and running around city streets wearing a Pokemon outfit.

He briefly mentioned the encounter with a body at the start of the video, saying, "That was weird."

Paul, who was criticized by "Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner, among others, has since apologized for the video.

"Where do I begin. Let's start with this. I'm sorry."

"I thought I could make a positive ripple on the Internet, not cause a monsoon of negativity," he continued.

New York magazine reported that the video garnered more than 6 million views in less than one day before it was removed.

Who is he?

Logan Paul, 22, is originally from Ohio but moved to Los Angeles at the age of 19 to pursue an entertainment career beyond social media, according to his website.

He is the brother of Jake Paul, a vlogger and actor known for his role in Disney's "Bizaardvark."

Before achieving Internet fame, Paul reportedly briefly attended Ohio State University to pursue a engineering degree.

Why is he famous?

Paul first found fame on the video streaming service Vine. But his Internet fame has now expanded to YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms.

Paul boasts 16 million Facebook followers, 16.1 million Instagram followers, 15 million YouTube subscribers, 3.9 million Twitter followers and, according to his website, 1.7 million Snapchat followers.

Other than his vlog on YouTube, he also has an official YouTube channel, TheOfficialLoganPaul.

In addition to appearing in a few commercials for Hanes and HBO, the vlogger also had a guest role on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" during the show's 16th season, according to his website. He also starred in the YouTube Red film "The Thinning" and the adult comedy "Airplane Mode."

In 2017, Paul was named one of Forbes magazine's top influencers in entertainment.

How does he make money?

Paul primarily makes money through advertisers.

Paul is an "in-demand marketing partner," Ad Week wrote in 2016. Given the number of subscribers and followers he has, many companies see Paul as the perfect avenue to promote their products.

In 2015, Dunkin' Donuts tapped Paul to promote its new app.

Forbes reported that Paul makes $150,000 per Facebook post and $80,000 for sponsored content on Instagram. In 2016, Paul reportedly earned $12.5 million, a ccording to Celebrity Net Worth.

In addition, Paul also has his own apparel brand called Maverick.

In light of recent controversial videos, YouTube suspended ads from Paul's channels, saying his content was "unsuitable for brands," Variety.com reported on Feb. 9.

Anything else?

In October of last year, Logan bought a $6.55 million estate in Los Angeles' Echino neighborhood.
Fox News' Benjamin Brown and The Associated Press also contributed to this report.
Madeline Farber is a Reporter for Fox News. You can follow her on Twitter @MaddieFarberUDK.

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YouTube star Logan Paul's rise and fall from internet fame

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In early January, YouTube star Logan Paul received a wave of criticism after he posted a video which showed the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan. And now he's facing criticism again -- this time, from animal rights group, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

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I found an article written by Sebastian Zulch titled, "Why Shameless/ Portrayal of Bipolar Disorder is Important". The author immediately states that it can be hard to find movies or TV shows that positively represent mental illnesses. He then continues to talk about Shameless and how for him, someone who has suffered personally from bipolar disorder, the show is "a fair depiction of the disorder".
Shameless does portray mental illness realistically. Within the first few seasons of the show we are told that one of the main characters suffers from bipolar disorder, as does his mother. They portray these characters as being overly happy for a week or two, and then show them tired and not wanting to move for about a month. This is a more accurate representation than most others we see. For example, the author of the article states, "Ian's character goes through lots of ups and downs in the show, but none of it is over exaggerated or unreasonable. Bipolar really can look like not leaving your bed for days in depression, and then like hypersexuality and reckless behavior for days in mania, as Ian shows viewers.". He then continues to compare and contrast Shameless to The Sopranos, another TV show. He complains about the way The Sopranos depict the way bipolar medication makes someone feel, and for someone who is watching that who is suffering from bipolar disorder, who he states as he dad, may make that individual not want to properly take the medication they need. Therefore, Shameless realistically depicts bipolar disorder.

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When it comes to positive representation of mental illness in the media, our options on TV tend to be scarce.

Most shows use mental illnesses like bipolar as punchlines or adjectives, further perpetuating the problematic way we tend to talk about these illnesses at home. The only exception I've encountered so far, besides the new show Lady Dynamite, is Showtime's Shameless. Since the show's beginning in 2011, they've done an amazing job with their honest portrayal of bipolar disorder in Ian Gallagher, played by Cameron Monaghan.

As a person diagnosed with bipolar, and as someone who has many family members with the disorder, seeing a relatable and fair depiction of the disorder means a lot to me. Most shows I've seen growing up hadn't mentioned mental disorders and psychotropic meds at all, while some portrayed features of bipolar treatment as extremely negative or even dangerous.

I'll never forget how frustrated I felt when I saw Tony flush a bottle of lithium pills down the toilet after it gave him some pretty wild hallucinations in The Sopranos. Since my dad was an avid watcher of the show, I cringed at the thought of my dad seeing this episode and having it confirm his negativity toward treating his bipolar (and specifically his negativity toward lithium, the drug I'm on). I wish my dad watched more Shameless, and observed Ian deal with bipolar and lithium in a more positive way.

Ian's characters goes through lots of ups and downs in the show (a little bipolar humor there), but none of it is over exaggerated or unreasonable. Bipolar really can look like not leaving your bed for days in depression, and then like hypersexuality and reckless behavior for days in mania, as Ian shows viewers. Luckily, he has his family, who has a lot of knowledge about the disorder since their absent mother Monica also has it. They're very understanding of his struggle and often point out that his diagnosis was predictable since mood disorders are hereditary. They also do everything they can to advocate for Ian, supporting him through his hospitalization after his third Manic episode, and making sure he took his meds when he was losing hope in his treatment.

Over the progression of the seasons, we get to see Ian slowly progress on his journey. He starts lithium, which makes him very tired and slow. He spends lots of days in bed until his body adjusts, mirroring the reality of taking lithium. Ian gets to a functional level eventually, with most of his symptoms in remission. He enjoys successful relationships, jobs and family time without his mental illness othering him or disabling him from being a kind person.

He starts a job as an EMT in season six, a job he had to fight for after he was discriminated against for having a mood disorder and having been in a psychiatric hospital. He has a manic episode on the job after he breaks up with his boyfriend because his meds had gone out of balance (stress can cause this to happen with mood disorder patients). And once he gets his meds right, he returns to his job feeling healthy again.

Watching Ian's journey has always been heart wrenching for me because I could relate so much. But I appreciated the show's positive portrayal of mental illness and medicine, which helped normalize my own experiences a little more. As someone who hasn't been able to hold down a full time job yet, Ian showed me that it's possible to get to a point where you can thrive in the workplace and properly advocate for yourself when you're bipolar and on meds. And the episode where stress triggered an imbalance for him provided me comfort when the same thing happened to me after a close relative of mine had died this year. Before I even spoke to my psychiatrist, I was able to breathe easy knowing that stress could cause a flare in symptoms and that I could get back to the place of balance that I had previously.

Negative portrayals of bipolar in the media (or negative portrayal of drugs like in The Sopranos) are likely to discourage folks like my dad from seeking treatment or talking about their symptoms with a professional. Because when folks with bipolar disorder are so often categorized as violent and unpredictable, and medication like lithium being categorized as dangerous and toxic, it's hard to want to claim that identity and go forward with treatment.

I'm forever grateful for Shameless. They've truly shone a light on bipolar in a way that no other TV show has successfully done, breaking stereotypes of medicine and revealing the honest truth: that people with bipolar are not monsters. I'm lucky to call the character Ian Gallagher my role model, and look forward to further discussion the show facilitates on mental illness in the future.

Cover Image Courtesy of Getty Images.

By Sebastian Zulch on December 29, 2016

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Why Shameless' Portrayal of Bipolar Disorder Is Important - HelloFlo

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When it comes to positive representation of mental illness in the media, our options on TV tend to be scarce. Most shows use mental illnesses like bipolar as punchlines or adjectives, further perpetuating the problematic way we tend to talk about these illnesses at home.

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"Split is the latest film to misunderstand why mental illness is terrifying"

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"Split is the latest film to misunderstand why mental illness is terrifying"

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In the article, "Split is the latest film to misunderstand why mental illness is terrifying," author Charles Bramesco discusses the flaws in movie industries when incorporating mental illnesses. In the film Split, the main character Kevin, or any other 15 or so names he uses, is portrayed as someone who has Dissociative Identity Disorder. However, the way he is portrayed is inaccurate and a little offensive. Sure, people with DID can be scary to others, however this story by the end loses sight of who Kevin really is. He makes him out to be a supernatural serial killer psycho. People with mental illnesses should not be portrayed this way.
This article makes a very interesting point, "Loads of horror flicks have used mental abnormalities to create fearsome antagonists, but the best of them relate how these conditions also torment the afflicted, who can be as frightened by their own nagging thoughts as the audience is" (Bramesco 2018). This movie does not show all the suffering Kevin goes through and how his mental illness affects him. Rather, they focus on how the girls are terrified of him. What's even worse is how they try to make a joke out of his character. When he talks to himself or talks to the girls and then immediately switches into another personality, it's done with humorous dialogue to make the audience laugh. Mental illnesses are not something to laugh about. Doing that will only create a larger problem.

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"The only idea more overused than serial killers is multiple personality." That scripting advice from one screenwriter to another (both played by Nicolas Cage in 2002's Adaptation), could practically be a diss aimed directly at Split. The latest effort from suspense maestro M. Night Shyamalan casts James McAvoy as mentally ill serial killer Kevin, and more specifically, as Jade, Hedwig, Patricia, Barry, and upward of a dozen more personalities splintering from Kevin's unstable psyche. The personae wrestle for control of a single body as they carry out the dark work of kidnapping and preparing three teenage girls for sacrifice to something inhuman. This makes for one doozy of a trailer, but in mining terror from dissociative identity disorder (DID), Shyamalan travels one of horror cinema's most well-trod paths, and faceplants into the same pitfalls that have tarnished scary movies for decades.

In short, we need to talk about Kevin. Or rather, Shyamalan does. The character's original identity briefly surfaces late in the film, but most of the run time goes to the array of caricatures cooped up in the dysfunctional boarding house of his brain. The original personality is mostly an afterthought, a brief interlude in a hammy performance from McAvoy, clearly having the time of his life. The end of the film makes Kevin out to be a literal supervillain and dubs him "the Horde" - an appropriate fate, considering how intent Shyamalan seems on divorcing the character from the vulnerability that makes him compelling. He loses sight of Kevin's fundamental humanity, and in doing so, misunderstands what can really make mental illness a terrifying ordeal. Loads of horror flicks have used mental abnormalities to create fearsome antagonists, but the best of them relate how these conditions also torment the afflicted, who can be as frightened by their own nagging thoughts as the audience is.

Where else could the phenomenon begin but with Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's Rosetta Stone for translating a huge chunk of modern horror cinema? The mind's capabilities to misfire have frightened the public imagination since Jack the Ripper's sociopathy cleared the streets of Whitechapel after dark, but Hitchcock was the first to put it into pop-psych layman's terms. He vilified the brain itself, and its ability to turn on its owner and whisper troubling orders into the subconscious. Norman Bates' mommy complex is torn straight from Freud 101, but Hitchcock lent the character more nuance than the analyst's profile in the concluding scene suggests. Norman is the truest casualty of his tyrannical mother, and Hitchcock has a clear compassion for the character's tragic dimension. Sympathizing with him and making him human makes him a richer character overall, and lends the murder scenes a stronger emotional and psychological undercurrent. Viewers are torn, sympathizing both with Norman's victims and with Norman himself, and that ambiguity is what sticks long after the credits roll.

The ideal horror film makes its audience care about a mentally ill character, not just acknowledge their sickness and move right along. Sympathy doesn't just make for more finely shaded characters - it combats the toxic real-world stigma that's come from reprehensible depictions of mental illness. Plenty of works of fiction have used disorders to make their rogues' gallery more distinctive and striking. But obscuring the underlying personhood of mentally struggling characters reinforces the harmful notion that people with mental disorders are somehow beyond human.

The Friday the 13th franchise began with another psychological case study, as grieving mother Pamela Voorhees descended into post-traumatic madness and took revenge on the camp counselors her fractured mind believed were responsible for the death of her son, Jason. The original film extended a minimum of sympathy to her, and offered the audience a disturbing look at how mental stressors can distort a mother's love for her son into homicidal urges. The films that followed sacrificed whatever slight nuance they had by shifting the focus to Jason, an indestructible killing machine whose famed hockey mask deliberately rendered him a blank slate. It's a lucrative but wrongheaded approach - a lack of basic relatability makes Jason larger (and more fearsome) than life, but it also rapidly reduced him to a caricature.

Split tops the Friday the 13th franchise in a walk, however. To its credit, Shyamalan's script uses the more up-to-date term of dissociative identity disorder rather than "multiple-personality" to refer to Kevin's condition. Not to its credit is the rest of the film, which repeatedly fixates on the brain's potential to psychosomatically change a body's physiology. Kevin's analyst, Dr. Karen Fletcher, repeatedly spells out her controversial theory that DID grants sufferers extraordinary control of their bodies, citing such examples as a blind woman with a personality capable of vision, or a strongman personality spontaneously developing extraordinary strength. Shyamalan extends the concept to a cartoonish extreme when he introduces Kevin's personality "the Beast," which has superhuman abilities and a monstrous appearance. By the end of the film, Kevin is exhibiting abilities that amount to superpowers, somehow derived from what professional consensus indicates is his brain's extreme coping mechanism to a fleetingly shown childhood of abuse. ( Medical orthodoxy favors the notion that personalities fracture as an attempt to quarantine and compartmentalize harmful mental stressors.) The act of other-ing Kevin as a patient of DID isn't even incidental; it's the whole point. It's hard to imagine a more squarely on-the-nose example of demonizing mental illness than portraying a mentally ill man as a literal demon.

Even when not deliberately toxic, many on-screen depictions of mental illness have been factually and flatly wrong. Plenty of myths have already been debunked; cases of alternate personalities turning violent are incredibly scarce, and cases of archly evil behavior are nonexistent. Sybil, starring Sally Field, is widely considered the definitive portrait of a dissociating psyche, but it's a work of pure fiction. Shirley Mason, the real-life model for the theatrically disturbed character, has confessed that she was faking, and did not actually house multiple identities. The act of "flipping" from one mind to another has more dramatic heft than the reality of the situation, where patients slip between mental spaces.

Maybe a demand for baseline factual accuracy seems like nitpicking when it comes to scary movies. For the sake of argument, let's assume the lone service of a horror picture is to scare the bejesus out of its audience. That's fine - the problem isn't just that Shyamalan's approach compounds public distrust for the mentally unwell, it's the way it ignores the rich potential for more complex storytelling and raw, visceral frights. Split works in quick jabs of terror, spooking the trembling teen captives with the occasional burst of violence or terror. Films that provide a window into an unwell mentality, however,cancolor every scene with free-floating fear. Black Swan had the good sense to take its visual and stylistic cues from the mental interior of Natalie Portman's paranoid ballerina as she cracks under the pressure of the gig of a lifetime. Likewise, for Tim Robbins' PTSD-stricken veteran in Jacob's Ladder, chilling hallucinations can pop out of anywhere, keeping the viewer permanently on guard.

Mental illness does have its place in the horror genre, and it is scary. The feeling that your brain no longer follows the commands you give it, that your senses can't be trusted, that you're at the mercy of internal forces you can't comprehend or control - it can be a nightmare sprung to life. It's a filmmaker's responsibility to keep it all in perspective, and extend a grain of sympathy to affected characters, even as they slide further into their delusion. The world remembers Hannibal Lecter and his refinement coexisting with savagery, not Buffalo Bill, whose body dysmorphia transforms him into a snarling, feral animal. One is a character, the other's a ghoul.

It's possible that Shyamalan realizes this, too. When Kevin briefly appears, he's a friendly figure, compared to his alternate personalities. But Shyamalan's creaky dialogue and McAvoy's detached stoicism in the moment make that moment ring false, more lip service than a character beat. The real Kevin seems to be a relatively normal guy, only faintly affected by his own psychosis. In that moment, all the tension and internal conflict evaporates, and any connection the audience may have had with him is instantly severed. That moment encapsulates the trouble with Split, and with the countless films that have made the same error: before we can feel her pain, we've got to feel his.

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Split is the latest horror film to misunderstand why mental illness is terrifying

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"The only idea more overused than serial killers is multiple personality." That scripting advice from one screenwriter to another (both played by Nicolas Cage in 2002's Adaptation), could practically be a diss aimed directly at Split. The latest effort from suspense maestro M.

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Slpit is the latest dilm to misunderstand why mental illness is terrifying"

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Slpit is the latest dilm to misunderstand why mental illness is terrifying"

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The article discusses the problem with the way people portray dissociative identity disorder (DID). In the film, the main character Kevin is a serial killer with DID who traps three girls in order to kill them. The problem with the way this movie

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"Split is the latest horror filmto misunderstand

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"Split is the latest horror filmto misunderstand

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"Kurt Cobain was not a 'tortured genius,' he had an illness"

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"Kurt Cobain was not a 'tortured genius,' he had an illness"

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In the article “Kurt Cobain was not a ‘tortured genius’, he had an illness,” author Matt Haig argues that portraying suicide and mental illness as the creative muses and poster boys of our nation’s celebrity is not only false, but also does a dangerous disservice to the everyday person who suffers from Depression or other mental illness. He acknowledges that “Sure, depressed people are often drawn to creative areas, as an outlet…[as a method of] externalizing internal feelings [to] make them more bearable,” but says that we must be careful about separating artists into haves and have-nots when it concerns mental illness.

I think Haig makes some important points here: nothing about suicide or mental illness is glamorous when it’s personal rather than a news headline. I remember the moment of Cobain’s death because it left an indelible mark on my childhood. I was in 8th grade when he did it, and merely months before I had first discovered Nirvana’s music. More importantly, the older brother of one of my close childhood friends had done the same just about a year prior. I’m in full agreement with Haig: suicide is not artistic expression; it’s one of the most terrifying examples of human and family tragedy.

But this point does not discredit the potential link between illness and creativity—the role illness plays in pushing people to create and push forward—no matter how uncomfortable the idea may make us. As Haig admits, “depressed people are often drawn to creative areas, as an outlet” and thus, whether glamorous or just plain sad, it seems that illness often acts as a catalyst for creative output. For some, it’s the spark that turns people towards art as both an emotional channel and a coping strategy. Whether this illness causes audiences to place more pathos on an actor’s performance of The Joker in a Dark Knight film or whether this illness leads to the creation of an album like Nirvana’s Nevermind, millions consume these works, and in the minds of at least some of these people, art and illness will be forever linked.

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"Stigma as a Barrier to Mental Health Care"

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"Stigma as a Barrier to Mental Health Care"

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As part of the stories of the year collection, this piece is being resurfaced along with others in the coming days as ESPN Digital and Print Media closes out the year. Check out the full list here.
ON THE MORNING of Jan. 17, 2014, Madison Holleran awoke in her dorm room at the University of Pennsylvania. She had spent the previous night watching the movie The Parent Trap with her good friend Ingrid Hung. Madison went to class. She took a test. She told a few friends she would meet them later that night at the dining hall. She went to the Penn bookstore and bought gifts for her family.

While she was there, her dad called. "Maddy, have you found a therapist down there yet?" he asked.

"No, but don't worry, Daddy, I'll find one," she told him.

But she had no intention of finding one. In fact, she was, at that exact moment, buying the items she would leave for her family at the top of a parking garage. Godiva chocolates for her dad. Two necklaces for her mom. Gingersnaps for her grandparents, who always had those cookies in their home. Outfits for her nephew, Hayes, who had been born two weeks earlier. The Happiness Project for Ingrid, with a note scribbled inside. And a picture of herself as a young kid, holding a tennis racket. Over winter break she had told her dad that she was borrowing that picture, that she needed it for something.

She didn't say what.

Then, on the evening of Jan. 17, just after dusk settled on the city, Madison took a running leap off the ninth level of a parking garage in downtown Philadelphia.

She was 19 years old.

MADISON LOVED QUOTES. Sometimes she took a picture of the words, spotted in a magazine, and posted the image on social media. Other times she wrote down the quote -- in beautiful script, to be framed -- so she could revisit the sentiment anytime she wanted.

She loved to draw, write in her journal and read. She enjoyed long runs, singing in the car, sushi, and bananas with peanut butter.

She also loved her big New Jersey family. She was especially close with her dad, whom she called "Big Jimbo." He was her biggest fan. He came to her soccer games and track meets, always wrapping her in a hug afterward. He believed she could do anything.

Family and friends used to joke that whenever they opened the Bergen Record, they saw a picture of Madison, another athletic feat captured in print: so many goals scored, so many track meets won.

Life seemed good; life was good.

Then Madison left for college. She had decided to run track at Penn, only two hours from home, but it felt like a foreign land to her. Everything seemed to change. Running had once made her feel alive, but at Penn she couldn't breathe. Her friends had once made everything better; now they just couldn't understand.

EVERYONE IN MADISON'S LIFE holds a piece of her story, possesses a clue: a text message, a vacant look, a deleted Instagram post. In the days after she died, the people who knew her best converged on Allendale, New Jersey, her hometown; siblings (one brother, three sisters), parents (Jim and Stacy), high school friends, college classmates -- all offered their shattered piece to see whether they could rebuild Madison.

It was as if they hoped she might be breathed back to life. As if they might then do and say the things they hadn't known she needed.

Madison was beautiful, talented, successful -- very nearly the epitome of what every young girl is supposed to hope she becomes. But she was also a perfectionist who struggled when she performed poorly. She was a deep thinker, someone who was aware of the image she presented to the world, and someone who often struggled with what that image conveyed about her, with how people superficially read who she was, what her life was like.

THE LIFE MADISON projected on her own Instagram feed was filled with shots that seemed to confirm everyone's expectations: Of course she was loving her first year of college. Of course she enjoyed running. Her mom remembers looking at a photo on her feed and saying, "Madison, you look like you're so happy at this party."

"Mom," Madison said. "It's just a picture."

Everyone presents an edited version of life on social media. People share moments that reflect an ideal life, an ideal self. Hundreds of years ago, we sent letters by horseback, containing only what we wanted the recipient to read. Fifty years ago, we spoke via the telephone, sharing only the details that constructed the self we wanted reflected.

With Instagram, one thing has changed: the amount we consume of one another's edited lives. Young women growing up on Instagram are spending a significant chunk of each day absorbing others' filtered images while they walk through their own realities, unfiltered. In a recent survey conducted by the Girl Scouts, nearly 74 percent of girls agreed that other girls tried to make themselves look "cooler than they are" on social networking sites.

No image captures the paradoxes of Madison's Instagram account more than the one she posted just an hour before jumping off the parking garage. Holiday lights are twinkling in the trees of Rittenhouse Square, and Madison put a filter on the image that produced an ethereal quality, almost as if the night is underwater.

She seemed acutely aware that the life she was curating online was distinctly different from the one she was actually living. Yet she could not apply that same logic when she looked at the projected lives of others. Before going home for winter break, she asked Ingrid, who was also struggling at Penn, "What are you going to say when you go home to all your friends? I feel like all my friends are having so much fun at school."

She and Ashley Montgomery, a friend and track teammate, followed a group of Penn upperclassmen on Instagram. They would scroll through pictures and say to each other, "This is what college is supposed to be like; this is what we want our life to be like."

Madison's high school friends had told her they were also struggling. Emma Sullivan was running track at Boston College and having a hard time. Another friend, Jackie Reyneke, was playing basketball at Princeton and feeling overwhelmed. They had all shared some form of their struggles with Madison, yet in her mind, the lives her friends were projecting on social media trumped the reality they were privately sharing.

This confused them, and it still does.

Checking Instagram is like opening a magazine to see a fashion advertisement. Except an ad is branded as what it is: a staged image on glossy paper.

Instagram is passed off as real life.

Yes, people filter their photos to make them prettier. People are also often encouraged to put filters on their sadness, to brighten their reality so as not to "drag down" those around them. The myth still exists that happiness is a choice, which perpetuates the notion of depression as weakness.

Life must be Instagrammed -- in more ways than one.

MADISON ONCE POSTED a picture collage of her dad on Instagram with the caption, "Happy Father's Day to Big Jimbo, the greatest man I've ever known and ever will know. Love you with all my heart Daddio."

Every summer they attended the U.S. Open, the last of the tennis grand slams. Madison loved watching the best female players, occasionally wondering aloud whether she could have played tennis at the highest level.

"Of course you could," Jim said.

The first inkling he had that his daughter wasn't doing well at Penn was when she refused to come with him to Flushing Meadows, site of the U.S. Open, just after the start of her freshman year. She said she was too swamped with schoolwork and practice. He offered to drive down to Philly from Allendale, a four-hour round trip, just so she could get a break from what he sensed had become a high-pressure environment.

But Jim didn't press her. "I should have just driven down there and gotten her," he says, letting the sentence trail off.

Madison's older sister Ashley had started college at Penn State just two years before. She was unhappy, so she transferred to Alabama, where life improved. Jim and Stacy thought Madison must be going through something similar. A change of scenery was what she needed. An easy fix like that and Madison would continue her upward trajectory.

"This is normal," her sister Carli told her. "People leave home, they're unhappy, they transfer -- they figure it out."

Madison shook her head: "It's not normal. It's not normal to feel like this."

She started seeing a therapist during Thanksgiving break and would continue seeing the woman through winter break. The closest Madison came to a diagnosis was "battling anxiety."

"There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that happened when she was younger, growing up, that makes sense of the decision she made," Stacy says. "Am I angry at her? Yes, of course I am."

Everyone now agrees that Madison was depressed, though she had never previously exhibited symptoms. (Depression exists on Jim's side of the family.) Something had changed with her brain chemistry. She was not seeing the world in the same way she had before. She had lost weight too, had become so thin as to appear sick.

The day before Madison returned to Penn for spring semester, she had a session with her therapist that Jim also attended. She admitted to having suicidal thoughts. "If you have suicidal thoughts, don't act them out," her doctor said. "Either call me or call someone in your family."

Madison nodded.

As a family, they had never talked about suicide. Jim never considered it a real possibility -- just the dramatic ending to someone else's story. As Carli explains: "Other people battle depression for years. With Madison, it feels like one day she was happy, the next she was sad and the day after she was gone."

Jim feared that speaking about suicide would make its likelihood greater. He didn't raise the subject as he and Madison drove back to Philadelphia.

Bill Schmitz Jr., former president of the American Association of Suicidology, points out that depression does not have a one-size-fits-all prognosis. "The course varies," he says. "In a way, it's the same as cancer. For some, we might prolong life for months, for years. For others, it can be very sudden."

Jim drove Madison back to Philadelphia on Jan. 11. As they approached the exit off I-95, he offered to keep driving, to put Philly in the rearview mirror, to drive south, to the University of North Carolina or Vanderbilt University -- to somewhere, anywhere. She could enroll at a new school, start over.

"Let's just keep driving," he said. "Let's enroll you somewhere else."

She shook her head. She had promised to meet friends at a Penn basketball game.

As he left his daughter that evening, Jim remembers looking at Madison and thinking, She's still not happy; that's not a happy kid I'm walking away from.

A few days later, at the start of the spring semester, Stacy and Mackenzie, Madison's youngest sister, drove to Philadelphia to join Madison for a meeting with Steve Dolan, the head track coach at Penn. Madison had told Ingrid she was planning to quit the team.

The three Hollerans walked into Dolan's office. Madison pulled out a letter she had written outlining why she wanted to quit.

"I need to figure out if track is making me unhappy, or Penn, or if it's something else," she read from the letter. She also spoke of struggling with the training (at that point, she was being coached by an assistant, not Dolan) and with the dorm she was in. She talked about wanting to join a sorority.

Dolan listened patiently, but the news surprised him. Madison seemed to have lost perspective, was seeing through a blurred lens, like some kind of dysmorphia. She had excelled in school (GPA of 3.5) and in track during the first semester, despite her constant fears that she was failing at both. To Dolan, she had appeared happy and content.

"I support you, and I want you to be happy and healthy," Dolan said. "The decision is yours. Do you not want to keep training, keep running?"

Ivy League track is demanding. Madison wasn't the first runner to tell Dolan she might quit. He saw a college freshman in transition, struggling to find her place.

Madison folded the letter and put it away.

"Yes, I do," she said after a pause. "I want to keep running."

Later that week, Madison heard that another member of the track team had quit. "I can't believe that," she said longingly. "I really can't."

As they walked out of Dolan's office, Stacy said, "He is one fabulous coach." They walked to Ingrid's dorm room, where Madison told her friend about the meeting, her voice lighter than anyone had heard in months.

"I drove home feeling pretty good," Stacy says. "I thought she was actually getting better, or starting to. She seemed better, in my mind anyway. But now I know that she was putting on an act that week."

MADISON SPENT WINTER break at home, in Allendale.

Over the holiday, she went to her friend Emma Sullivan's house. Emma was one of her best friends; the two spoke more intimately, more deeply, than they did with others, sharing the fears they had about growing up and leaving home.

"Her most pressing thought: If she quit, wasn't she just a failure?"

She sat at the kitchen table with Emma and her mom. Snow fell heavily outside, sheets of white streaming outside the window. The three women sat there for hours.

"Why are you not as happy as you used to be?" Emma asked.

"Tell us how you're feeling," Emma's mom urged.

Madison was unable to identify exactly what had cast her adrift. Was it the disappointment with Penn, once her dream school? Was she homesick? Was track overwhelming her?

And the most pressing thought of all: If she quit, wasn't she just a failure? Wouldn't that be the first in what would become a lifetime of letdowns?

Madison had always struggled to handle even garden-variety failure. She chased perfection. Once, when a track result wasn't what she expected, she broke down in tears. Outsiders thought she was so gifted she could just show up and run faster than everyone, not knowing how hard she prepared and trained.

Madison kept her eyes down while sitting at the kitchen table. Emma remembers feeling that her best friend was lost -- just so lost.

Like everyone in Madison's life, Emma urged her to transfer from Penn.

"Yeah, it's kind of too late," Madison told Emma. "I'm already at Penn."

She said this as if she were locked in a room, the key thrown away.

That winter break, Madison wanted to keep her circle of seven friends close. They watched movies together. They slept over at one another's houses. And on the final night of break, they got together for a potluck dinner. (Madison brought store-bought sugar cookies; typically, she would have baked.) They called the night "The Last Supper" because, in the morning, the first among them would leave for the start of spring semester.

As the evening ended, Madison said, "Love you, see you soon!" as if they'd all see one another in a few weeks, maybe over spring break, maybe sooner.

Later, she sent a text message to Ingrid, a picture of the seven high school friends, arms around one another. "These are the types of friends we need to find at Penn," she said.

THE NIGHT OF Jan. 17 was chilly, but not unseasonably so. Madison walked the streets of the city, wearing jeans, a sweater and a coat. She carried a shopping bag filled with the goodbye gifts for her family. For a while, she responded to friends on iMessage. Then she stopped.

Just after the sun went down, Madison began walking toward the parking garage at the corner of 15th Street and Spruce.

"Madison?" came a voice from across the street.

Lehigh soccer coach Eric Lambinus was standing on the street with assistant coach Amy Hough. The pair had recruited Madison out of high school, but at the last minute she chose Penn. The coaches were standing outside a restaurant. Eric waved to Madison, and she crossed the street toward them.

"How are you?" he asked.

Madison mentioned that she was cutting back on track but said otherwise everything was fine. Eric had heard through mutual friends that she was unhappy at Penn, but nothing appeared out of the ordinary.

"What's in the bag?" he asked.

"Some presents for my family," she said.

After a few minutes, Eric told Madison: "Just know there are doors open for you still. There are opportunities."

The coach needed to be careful with his words. He didn't want to appear to be poaching another school's student-athlete, but he also wanted to convey to Madison that if she wanted to start the transfer process, to play soccer at Lehigh as she had considered doing out of high school, that option was available. Madison had been one of the best prep soccer players in the state, winning two state titles with Northern Highlands.

Madison thanked him. The two said goodbye. She walked away, toward the parking garage. Eric immediately called his wife to tell her about running into Madison, about what a coincidence it was. Perhaps the meeting was serendipitous, he thought.

A block away, Madison began climbing the nine flights of stairs. When she reached the top, she placed the bag of gifts where it would easily be found. And a few minutes later -- maybe as few as five or as many as 15 -- she hurdled the silver-colored railing. She landed in the bike lane. A woman who did not see her fall stayed with her until an ambulance arrived. The woman believed Madison had passed out, perhaps drunk. Madison did not look like she had jumped from a building. She looked like she was asleep, the only scratch on her a small one, just above her eye.

When Eric walked out of the restaurant a little over an hour later, he heard the wail of police cars and ambulances. Something had happened down the street. He walked the other way to avoid the commotion. "I've gone over that night probably 100 times in my mind," he says. "I wish I had spent a little more time with her, but really nothing seemed out of the ordinary."

More than two hours after Madison jumped, at 9 p.m., Stacy received a call from the 215 area code. Even before she picked up, she felt unsettled.

"Is Madison OK?" she said.

It was Steve Dolan. He told Stacy something was wrong with Madison and he would find out more details and get back to her. Frightened, Stacy called some of Madison's friends at Penn. First on her list was Ingrid.

"Where is Madison?" Stacy asked. "Have you seen her?"

"No, I haven't, but we were supposed to eat dinner together tonight."

"Something is wrong," Stacy said.

Ingrid ran the quarter of a mile from her dorm room to Madison's, calling her friend's roommate on the way. The information to that point was limited: Nobody could find Madison. None of it made sense. Ingrid had just seen her friend that morning, and she had seemed the same as any other day.

Ingrid burst into Madison's dorm room -- her friend left the door unlocked. Every other time she'd been there, Madison's bed was unmade, clothes draped across the chair. As Ingrid looked around, alarm bells went off in her mind.

Madison's bed was crisply made.

Within minutes, campus officials were in the room and Ingrid was back on the phone with her friend's mom, who had received a call from the chaplain.

"She's gone," Stacy said.

No one can say for sure why Madison chose that specific parking garage. Maybe it doesn't matter. Or maybe it does. Maybe comfort exists in believing there is order in the world, even when someone is making the most disorderly decision we know: running toward death instead of away from it.

In their absence, we're left trying to pin meaning to air.

Nine stories of air.

PHILLY IS THE City of Murals. Hundreds of buildings are covered in artwork.

There is art on the parking garage from which Madison jumped. On the south side of the structure, on the wall facing Spruce, is a small installation. Quotes, fragments of thoughts, are stenciled in white against a black background, like chalk on a blackboard. The most evocative phrase reads, "She had wings on."

The wall looks like the rubble, the stacked words from poems never published.
She had wings on.
Madison left a suicide note that began, "I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out, and I thought how it is worse perhaps to be locked in." Previously, in her journal, she had written "Help!" at the top of one page, followed at the bottom by "No, no more help."

She also left a copy of the young adult book Reconstructing Amelia, which tells the story of a devastated single mother who pieces together clues about the death of her daughter, who supposedly killed herself by jumping off a building at her prep school. In the book, nothing is as it seems. And at the end, the mother discovers that Amelia didn't jump; she was pushed.

Jim cannot bring himself to read the book.

"Sometimes it's hard to tell how fast the current's moving until you're headed over a waterfall," the author writes.

Madison seemed to see a version of herself in Amelia, in the perfectly crafted veneer that never felt like an honest reflection of her interior life. As though she could never find validation for her struggle because how could someone so beautiful, so seemingly put together, be unhappy? This is illogical, of course. Like thinking a computer's hard drive can't malfunction simply because the screen hasn't a scratch.

The day after Madison jumped, Jim walked to the top of the parking garage. He read the phrase, She had wings on. He spoke with Madison's friends. He compiled clues.

Then he stopped. He could spend his life trying, in vain, to make his child whole again, he thought. Or he could work to keep others from breaking apart.

The Hollerans are trying now to deliver a new message: It's OK to not be OK. It's OK to show people you're not OK.

ASHLEY MONTGOMERY IS now a sophomore at Penn, and she still runs track. When she was a freshman, she and Madison would train together; the two were also close away from the sport. For Ashley, sophomore year has gone much better than freshman year, and she often thinks to herself, If only Maddy were around to feel this, to be here.

Freshman year of college can be like running an obstacle course wearing a blindfold. Nothing prepares you for how hard the workouts will be, how long they last, what each class will be like, which events are fun and which should be avoided.

Once, as she and Ashley ran through the Penn campus, Madison spotted a quote on the side of a building, part of a mural. She stopped to take a picture. Then she uploaded the image to Instagram.

A few hours later, when Ashley went to Instagram to see the picture, the image was gone. Madison had deleted it.

After Madison died, Ashley went running, hoping to find the mural that had caught the attention of her friend.

She couldn't.

"We all shared what we knew, and some things were answered," Ashley says. "But we could only do so much. The puzzle will never be complete."

THE TOP OF the parking garage slopes upward. There is a wall, then a silver-colored railing. Because Madison landed out in the street, her friends and family are convinced she took a running leap over the side, clearing the barrier just like she once cleared hurdles on the track.

At first glance, a running leap off a nine-story building makes little sense. Why not something that seems gentler, easier? (Whatever that means.) Maybe this is because all we can think about, standing at great heights, is the moment of impact, the violence of a falling body hitting concrete. This is exactly what Jim thought of when he went to the top of the parking garage on Jan. 18, 2014, the morning after -- peering over the railing and wondering what that final moment, the impact, must have felt like for his daughter.

Emma hasn't made sense of the act, or the method, but says if forced to make sense of it -- and Madison has forced her to do so -- she can maybe understand why Madison chose jumping. "If you run and jump, it's freeing -- to just do that. You just jump and it happens. And it's over with. And you don't have to struggle. I can picture her walking up there and just setting her mind to it and knowing it could happen -- that's something I can see her doing. When she gets on that line in track, it's like, 'I'm doing this.' She was always so determined, with everything that she did. Maybe even too determined sometimes."

"With Madison, it feels like one day she was happy, the next she was sad and the day after she was gone."
- Carli, Madison's sister
In high school, Emma and Madison talked about what life would be like as they grew older. (Most of Madison's friends said she rarely spoke of the future with them.) What it would be like to get married, have a family. Both were scared of growing up. Madison never even got her driver's license.

"We were both so fearful of what was to come," Emma says. "The way her mind worked, it threw her off when she didn't know what the next step was, or what the future would hold. Knowing the end result was something she always wanted."

But maybe Madison had stopped projecting into the future. Maybe picturing the concrete at the base of the parking garage was as impossible as imagining herself in old age.

Maybe she could only imagine the freedom of flying.

EVERY YEAR, MORE than 40,000 Americans die by suicide. Among young adults, ages 10 to 24, suicide is the second-leading cause of death, with more than 4,500 young people taking their lives each year. The suicide rate among NCAA athletes is lower than the general population (0.93 per 100,000, versus 10.9). Between 2004 and 2012, 35 student-athletes took their own lives.

Young adult suicide profoundly shakes us. Such promise, gone so soon.
What happened? Why? What did we miss?
Survivors search for answers. At first, those left behind are detectives. They are chasing clues. Over time, friends and family begin looking instead for peace, and for some kind of purpose.

"What happened?" becomes "What now?"

JIM STANDS IN the kitchen of the Holleran family home, looking into the backyard. He and Stacy played college tennis and still play. All their kids play the sport, or played at one time, including the two youngest, Mackenzie and Brendan, both of whom are still in high school. Mackenzie is packing a bag now, about to walk out the door for a lesson.

Jim makes a joke about the "friendly" rivalry between Mackenzie and Brendan on the tennis court. Everyone laughs.

A worn soccer goal sits in the backyard. Jim gestures out the window and says, "Madison used to run laps around the yard."

A shrine to Madison, with a sketched portrait, a dangling cross and the card from her funeral Mass, sits on a ledge over the dining room table. The Godiva chocolates Madison left for Jim were eaten. He doesn't remember when. The gingersnaps are gone too. Jim and Stacy seem much more interested in sharing Madison's life -- a DVD of her soccer highlights, a binder of newspaper clippings, her senior yearbook filled with notes from adoring classmates -- than the items she left before ending it.

On the refrigerator is a 2013 holiday card that reads, "Happy New Year. With love, the Holleran Family."

Madison is in the back row. She looks happy.

A week after Madison died, on Jan. 23, 2014, the family launched a Facebook page, "In Memory of Madison Holleran," which has more than 52,000 likes. The site is dedicated to suicide prevention and ending the stigma attached to mental illness. Included on the page are stories of Madison, and stories from people struggling with depression, looking for a community.

"Sometimes we are all a little broken, but there is always someone to help, always someone who cares," one post reads.

"Please seek help," another reads. "You are not alone."

And there's this one, from a runner, dated Oct. 6:

"I run because it's therapeutic for me. Because every time I run outside, around my home, I am reminded of the beauty of the world, of which I often forget. Yet at the same time, I am fully aware of beauty -- it simply saddens me because of reasons I have not yet conjured up. I suppose I am sad. But at the same time I am happy; and miserable; and joyful; and stressed out; and calm, and everything in between. I am everything. Every emotion, rigged in every format, and developed through every machine. I am numb but I am not."

A little over a year before she died, Madison posted on Instagram a snapshot of a quote from Seventeen magazine:

"Even people you think are perfect are going through something difficult."

The image had been put through a filter.
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From The Mag: Penn runner's depression masked on social media

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As part of the stories of the year collection, this piece is being resurfaced along with others in the coming days as ESPN Digital and Print Media closes out the year. Check out the full list here. ON THE MORNING of Jan. 17, 2014, Madison Holleran awoke in her dorm room at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Opinion | Mental Illness Is Not a Horror Show (Published 2016)

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I was unnerved to discover I was someone else’s idea of a ghoul or a zombie.

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Essential Question: "How has mental illness been portrayed in our popular culture and media?
How might this portrayal influence our perceptions of mental illness?”

Find and link to a source that helps you respond to these questions in some way (e.g. it could be an article on the stereotype of the "tortured artist"; a profile of a musician who suffers from mental illness; a review of a film that depicts mental illness; an article on social media's effects on mental health; a TEDTalk, etc.)

Write a healthy paragraph that introduces the author, title, and gives a summary of your source.

Write a second healthy paragraph that discusses how your example portrays mental illness. Is it a positive or problematic portrayal? Is it depicted realistically or is it misrepresented? Cite at least one thing from your source here as an example or evidence.

You may also include yourself in the conversation: what did you find interesting, strange, or revealing in this source?