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As some of you may know I myself suffer from mental illness, it can be hard trying to explain how exactly I feel the way I do, or how my illness affects me. This is why Television and Film can be so great, I can point straight to them and use them to educate others about my illness.
Mental Illness does come with a ton of stereotyping, even today some writers get it wrong, or just stick with the broad symptoms that can fit any illness. I want to talk about those films and shows that get it right, and the ones which have helped me during my own turbulent time.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
This week I want to focus on one of my favourite shows on television right now, it is one of the few shows I watch week to week religiously, I am both happy it's coming back soon and sad that it's ending after this season.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (that's a sexist term) is the one show I can really relate too, I myself don't have BPD so I can't fully understand what our main character Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom) is going through, but I understand the majority of her symptoms.
Rebecca understands the world through musical numbers whereas I understand the world through television, Rebecca also has bouts of anxiety, depression, obsession, fear of abandonment, emptiness, and panic attacks that I experience on a daily basis.
Through all three season, Rebecca is both mentally ill and yet stable within her life. She has a job, friends, receives the key to the city for her work, and always manages to go above and beyond for her clients. She does all this while her main focus in life is Josh Chan (Vincent Rodriguez III).
She spends most of her time plotting to get Josh back, she moves across country for him, she makes life decisions based on butter commercials, but she still finds a way to function well enough to do her job better than anyone else when it isn't even her sole focus.
She is a tax paying, functioning member of society, who just happens to have mental health problems. This is what I love about this show, because as crippling as mental illness can be, its not what defines us.
The majority of my life I'm managed to stay stable while fighting mental illness, I may have hit a huge bump in the road, but every day it gets a little easier. This show helps me know that I'm not alone in this fight, and I have the strength to beat it.
It's not just Rebecca Bunch, every other character in the show has issues, Paula Procter (Donna Lynne Champlin) refers to the same "Like glitter was exploding inside me," every time she did something bad with Rebecca.
Every character in this show has issues, be it parental, alcoholism, marital, or other mental illness' they have to deal with. It brings up big issues such as suicide, and makes you understand why that character might not be able to go on.
I could go on and on about this show forever, but please feel free to add anything I've missed about the show's portrayal of mental illness.
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