Controversy: Evaluating Media’s Accuracy

Controversy: Evaluating Media’s Accuracy

Thanks for sharing your thoughts here on Homeland! Knowing psychology can help to shed some light on the issues we are discussing here and provides a place for people to see that they are not alone in their struggles. People with mental health conditions often go to great lengths to conceal their struggles in fear that they will be negatively perceived and such media messages about mental health practitioners do not help. Celebrities such as Princess Diana come to mind in how the paparazzi depicted her as a “princess” and perfect though it later came out how she had struggled with eating disordered behavior and Borderline Personality Disorder.

It is true that many people suffer needlessly by the perpetuation of myths and lies regarding mental health. I agree that media influence is a powerful tool and find that it can be used for better or worse when it comes to depicting mental health. A positive way the media can be used is as an educational tool to debunk inaccuracies depicted elsewhere in the media, with videos like this one from YouTube titled “Mental Illness:”Mental Illness: What You See / What You Don’t SeeLinks to an external site.Links to an external site.wherein individuals living with a mental health disorder speak honestly and directly about the reality of living with disorders like depression.

The media can also be used to connect others regarding a similar disorder, like friends and family the use Autism Speaks, a national campaign that works to advocate for Autism. Or used to provide social justice around a mental health issue dealing with auditory psychosis, such as the called Hearing Voices campaign? Take a look at the hearing voices movement that is spreading across Europe and parts of the US and comment on your thoughts. It is a unique program that helps to put value on the voice hearer’s experience versus simply offering medication. You can access it at :http://www.voicesireland.com/Links to an external site.. Thoughts here?

Can folks think of other ways we can use media to help fight stigma towards mental health?