Role of the Media in Shaping Public Perception of Mental Illness and how this affects Mentally Ill People and their Families
Introduction
Inappropriate information from the media including television stations, newspapers and movies is among the reasons mental illness is viewed negatively in the society. In most cases, the media has contributed to the high degree of stigmatization and discrimination due to the negative influence it has on the public perception of mental illness. Individuals have been made to believe that mentally ill people are a risk to the society and that their condition is permanent. The media has often been under the spotlight for reporting imprecise information concerning mental illness by linking the disease to violence and elements that depict the mentally ill as a burden to the society. This implies that the media does not hold the fact that it is possible for the mentally ill to be restored to their normal state if only they are given the opportunity to seek for medical intervention at the earliest stage of their illness. The negative beliefs such as that mental illness leads to violence are to a large extent false since it is the normal people who are involved in the highest cases of violence and disruption of the peace in the society. This essay discusses how the media portrays the image of mental illness, the implications of the information on the lives of mentally ill persons and their families as well as the role media has to play from a psychologist’s point of view.
Image of Mental Illness in the Media
The media plays an imperative part in keeping people informed and advocating for ways through which efforts can be made to improve the lives of people in the society. However, at times, the media is seen as driven by the greed for money and attention among readers; thereby, making inaccurate and misleading content in the varied message passed across. However, the media still plays key role in addressing social problems such as the plight of the mentally ill and the stress their families go through in efforts to restore their patients to normalcy.
The media is responsible for reporting accurate information about mental illness and enhance ways through which the community can be educated to prevent incidences of stigma for the mentally ill and their families. The society gets their information about mental illness from the mass media channels which means that the message in the media impacts on their perceptions since damaging depictions by the media can lead to fear and discrimination against individual with mental illness. The myths portrayed in the media have a negative influence on the public and affects the patients with mental illness and their families. Some of the stereotypes associated with the mentally ill depicted by the media include the fact that the mentally ill are violent which is not reflective of the situation on the ground.
The mentally ill are in most cases the victims of violence from those who are mentally stable, considering the discrimination and the stigma linked to mental illness. Mental illness alone cannot be attributed to violent acts in the society since there are other factors such as substance abuse, history of violence and unemployment stressors that influence even the normal people to engage in violent acts. The media has also described the mentally ill as unpredictable making the public to develop apprehension when they come across any mentally ill person for fear of being attacked. Others have claimed that it is hard to restore the mentally ill back to their normal condition. This implies that the treatment interventions for the mentally ill are often branded as ineffective. However, this is not always the case since even complicated disorders such as Schizophrenia can be corrected through treatment interventions with the patients successfully integrated with the society in the long run.
It is worth noting that the media needs to be in the front line in protecting the mentally ill and convincing the society that they can still associate with the psychologically disturbed if only they understood the steps that can be taken to improve their situations. Images portrayed in the media are a powerful way of making people develop certain beliefs regarding the mentally ill. There is a need for media channels to get right the context of mental illness before they go ahead to air stories related to mental issues (Bastian et al., 2013). Since a picture could be damaging when used to depict stories about mental illness, it is appropriate for the media to avoid incidences where they link negative images to mental illness. This, then, creates the need for the media to change so as to avoid using images for commercial marketing and instead focus on educating the society and accommodating the condition of the mentally ill.
Analysis of the movie ‘A Beautiful Mind’
The movie ‘A Beautiful Mind’ is key to explaining psychological aspects among mentally ill persons. The movie is focused on the story of a brilliant mathematician, John Nash who suffers from Schizophrenia. Known for his mastery of mathematics, John is focused on discovering a revolutionary equation in mathematics, an idea that turns out to be an illusion, thereby, indicating that John could be suffering from Schizophrenia. The fact that John is suffering from Schizophrenia implies that he has a split mind such that his thinking is disorganized with disturbed perceptions. John suffers from hallucinations and severe delusions that impair his mentality such that he finds it hard to cope with normal situations. The movie creates ways of visualizing the condition of John through creating characters from his hallucinations.
The movie just like other movies that are commercially oriented could have been aimed at attracting the attention of viewers by portraying the mental illness of Nash as destructive. Pictures such as the one where Nash beats his wife and where he drowns his child all try to show mentally disturbed people as dangerous to the society. However, all that was happening to Nash could also occur to normal human beings since it is a common thing to have emotional changes in the view points when performing certain activities. The only difference is that a normal person is capable of effectively hiding their shifts in moods and attitudes.
The depiction of mentally disturbed people as dangerous in the community is extremely hurting for the patients and their families since it adds stress to the family members. This is because the families would want to be encouraged and supported in every way to ensure that their patients recover and are restored to their normal life. The media should be encouraging the mentally disturbed to be responsible for their condition and take medicine prescriptions as advised by their doctors. The media also needs to apply the role of championing for the society to accommodate the patients and provide them with an atmosphere that eliminates any incidences of discrimination and stigmatization. In most case, the families are tormented by the events that happen to their loved ones such that any actions that add to their already wounded hearts implies that they could lose hope of their patients recovering such that they could opt to neglect their patients. Several of the mentally disturbed people who find themselves in the streets are as a result of neglect and rejections from their families such that the streets are the only places where they can survive. There is need to ensure that the families of the victims are encouraged to develop a positive attitude regarding the conditions of their loved one such that they are willing and committed to take care of them throughout the period they are affected by the condition such as Schizophrenia to the time when the condition is restored. The media depiction of mentally ill persons as dangerous and difficult to treat causes depression among family members such that members such as the wives of the patients could suffer from social withdrawal and extreme moods changes that limit the chances of the loved one staking care of their patient. Public stigma and self-stigma are two factors that affect mentally ill patients whom the community is unwilling to embrace. Public and self-stigma lead to identity transformation such that individuals are unwilling to associate with the rest of the community members for fear of being rejected or discriminated against. Social withdrawal leads to low self-esteem that in turn reduces the chances of the victims seeking medical interventions at the earlier stages of the disease. This then limits their recovery chances such that they tend to take a longer period to recover than when they would have sought for treatment interventions at the onset of the illness.
The families are also affected by low esteem considering that community members tend to shift the blame on them instead of suggesting ways through which they could help. The media depiction of a mentally ill person attacking strangers shape the public opinion such that everyone has the reason to fear engaging with mentally ill person. This implies that most of the time, the victims are often left on their own or with their families such that in extreme cases of social exclusion, the victims could develop suicidal thoughts. The implications of the negative public opinion also makes nurses afraid of the patients such that they are unwilling to enhance a patient centred care for fear that the mentally ill could attack them and case injuries to them.
Relevance of the media as a psychologist
The mass media is an imperative cradle of information regarding mental disorders for the general populace including those with suffering from the mental disorders themselves. There is need to ensure that the media reports the accurate information on mental illness condition without linking the illness to aspects that lead to stigmatization and destructive myths (Bastian et al., 2013). This is because any information from the media that paints a negative image of mental illness lead to inaccurate beliefs about mental illness. Media reports need to look for the appropriate language to use in explaining their point of mental illness to avoid situations where the public becomes the victim of poor reporting. Media channels need to shift away from the concept of commercializing even matters that are sensitive but rather concentrate on advocating for policies and programs aimed at improving the conditions of the mentally ill in the society. It is ethical for the media to ensure they conceal the names of individuals in the community who could be suffering from mental illness since families are among the worst affected by poor reporting. Hiding the names implies that the patients’ families will not need to fear incidences of stigmatization that make them feel like they are to blame for the condition of their loved ones. Families are at times unaware of the steps to take whenever they have a patient suffering from mental illness, and they could turn to the media including televisions and newspapers to check for any relevant information (Bastian et al., 2013). This implies media needs to focus on providing help services such that it is possible to identify procedures to restore normalcy for the mentally ill and also make it suitable for families that are constrained financially to identify ways through which they could get help. The goal for any media including movies should be on advocating for ways through which incidences of mental illness could be reduced or eliminated in the society instead of relying on the information of victims to come up with interesting stories to maximize their revenues. The role of the media needs to be focused on instilling positive attitudes for the public to consider ways through which they could champion for the rights of the mentally (Bastian et al., 2013). Such steps to be taken by the community include bringing resources together to build rehabilitations centres or helping the families of the victim financially to cater for the treatment of their patients. In the modern society where everyone is sensitive to the message relayed by the media and where everyone is keen to learn about the events in the society, it is only appropriate that the media takes that opportunity to be educative and convince the society to avoid subscribing to the false myths about mentally ill persons.
Conclusion
Inappropriate information from the media including televisions, newspapers and movies is culpable for the negative portrayal of mental illness. In most cases, the media has contributed to high degree of stigmatization and discrimination due to negative influence it has on the public’s opinion of mental disorders. Stigmatization and discrimination leads to social withdrawal that develops to low self-esteem that reduces the chances of the victims seeking medical interventions at the earlier stages of the disease. Low self-esteem limits recovery chances such that the mentally ill tend to take a longer period to recover than when they would have sought for treatment intervention at the early stages. The goal for any media including movies should be on advocating for ways through which incidences of mental illness can be reduced or eliminated in the society instead of relying on the information of victims to come up with sensationalized stories to maximize their revenues.
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