The film industry and television are —in addition to entertainment— dissemination tools to make certain issues visible. Now a trend is to use them to address mental health and represent the lives of people who suffer from mental disorders, which are not few.
The WHO reported that, until last year, one in eight people suffered from a mental disorder. It is not a coincidence that these problems are increasingly visible in the audiovisual and we see characters with disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolarity, with obsessive compulsive disorder and more.
The duty of directors and scriptwriters is to get informed, responsibly, with health specialists such as psychologists to achieve reliable productions of reality and not abuse fiction, because beyond the cinema, there are people in front of the screens who can see reflected.
“Part of the success of these series is that they create characters with whom people feel emotionally identified. However, people should consume this content with caution: what are you going to do with that information? How much does that story reach you? and what are you going to do with it?
Ideally, If you recognize yourself in a character, go to therapy to find out what’s going on. Because beware: you may only feel identified with your reality, with the way you deal with the events of your life, but it does not mean that for this reason you already have a disorder or have a mental illness, “said psychologist Laura Restrepo.
There are many series in which they address mental health and make certain disorders visible.
From the hand of film critic Samuel Castro and psychologist Restrepo, this list of productions that responsibly address this issue was put together.
Bojack Horseman
Bojack Horseman is a forgotten actor who lived his glory days thanks to a television comedy. He then faces the toughest of existential crises and addictions as he tries to get back to the big leagues.
The psychologist Restrepo recommends that adolescents see it accompanied by adults. The series can be found at Netflix.
It is an emotional family story about love, life and defeat that occurs over several generations. In the story is Randall Pearson, a character who constantly has panic and anxiety attacks after experiencing an event that marked his life. It can be seen on the platform Prime Video.
The story of a therapist who develops intimate relationships with people close to her patients. It addresses professional ethics, biases, and how boundaries are blurred. She makes visible pathologies such as drug addiction, emotionally dependent people, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, attention deficit, hyperactivity and gender dysphoria. It is also available in Netflix.
The story revolves around Sam, a teenager with autism spectrum disorder who must begin to face his illness in order to go out into the world and have a life in which he can fall in love, study, make friends and, in general, strengthen ties with other people. . Doubts and questions about sexual orientation are addressed. He is in Netflix.
It is an animated podcast that, based on real interviews from the program The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, illustrates conversations about faith, spirituality, drugs, life, death and in general, human conditions. The psychologist expressed that she deals with grief.
It’s in Netflix.
A series of doctors in which the stories take place in a hospital. This one stands out, according to Samuel Castro, for the attention and management given to mental illnesses through the character who is a psychiatrist.
Available in Netflix.
To see on TV! A list of series that make mental health visible