It’s time for a reality check- mental illness is not pretty
We’ve all seen the disturbing images idealising mental illness on tumblr. We’ve all seen TV shows in which the protagonist is a tortured, angsty genius whose pain only increases their brilliance. We’ve all read YA novels about the sad teenage girl who needs a boyfriend to save her from herself. These days, we see mental illness as something that makes you appear stronger, more intelligent, and more admirable.

This is total fucking bullshit. Although having a psychiatric disorder, or being generally self-destructive can make your life seem more dramatic, you do not have to be dysfunctional in order to be interesting. Everybody has intriguing, dark and exciting ideas swirling about in their heads. Everybody does ‘crazy’ things sometimes. Everyone has issues. What makes a person interesting is their ideas and ability to create good things. You do not have to weigh eighty pounds and smoke crack in order to appear ‘deep’. In fact, being mentally ill does anything BUT make you seem pensive! When you are anorexic, all you think about is food. When you are on drugs, all you think about is drugs. When you are depressed, all you think about is how shit your life is. Those thoughts sound really philosophical and mind blowing, right? Not. Mental illnesses do not enable your creativity, they kill it.
Its almost like they are consuming, life limiting diseases! Who knew?

Another reason why we need to stop romanticising mental illness, is because it is not pretty. Isn’t it just so edgy to not take a dump for two weeks because you shut down your digestive system through starvation? Isn’t it just so sweet to call the cops on your spouse because you are paranoid that they poisoned your dinner? Isn’t it just so poetic to cripple yourself in a suicide attempt and be wheelchair bound for the rest of your life? YEAH! Because mental health problems are SOOOO GLAMOROUS!!!!
Of course, those were extreme examples, but my point is still clear. Mental illness bars you from having a full life. You could be enjoying a strong body and amazing food. You could be having a delicious, romantic dinner with your significant other. You could be a marathon runner. But no, you’re sick.
Romanticising mental illness is destructive. It stops people getting help because they don’t feel ‘worthy’ of it when their disease ‘isn’t that bad’. It makes people malinger. It means that people stay sick when they could be getting better, because they fear that people will not love them when they are well.
We romanticise mental illness because we do not fully understand it. We have to realise that it does not expand our minds to help us become incredible artists; it narrows our perspectives so much that eventually, we may not even be able to think of reasons to stay alive. In the midst of a mental breakdown, we do not become enlightened. We become buried. Only by clearing away the nonsense that makes mental illness so ugly and irrational can we get better. Lets stop nurturing our pain, and start healing from it.
