Buzz
Mental health disorders are a favorite topic in Hollywood, providing fertile ground for captivating or exaggerated character traits. However, the portrayal of these disorders is often far from accurate, as true depictions rarely offer the thrilling or uplifting stories that the entertainment industry prefers. Instead, Hollywood often resorts to stereotypes, resulting in a distorted view of serious mental health conditions.
10. Distinguishing Between OCD and OCPD
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) has become ingrained in popular culture, largely due to the TV series Monk. The protagonist, Adrian Monk, is a sharp detective whose OCD worsens after the tragic loss of his wife. This causes Monk to go to extreme lengths to ensure everything in his life is perfect. He meticulously checks for the slightest imperfection, often leading to comical situations. This portrayal reinforces the stereotype that OCD is simply about neatness or avoiding certain combinations, which is not the full picture of the disorder.
In reality, there’s often confusion between two very different disorders. Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) involves an overwhelming need for order and perfectionism, often accompanied by a rigid, perfectionistic attitude toward nearly everything. People with OCPD tend to be highly neurotic, which is a fitting description for Monk. However, disliking your food touching doesn’t necessarily indicate OCPD. You only receive this diagnosis when it significantly disrupts your daily life.
On the other hand, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) typically revolves around intrusive and unwanted thought patterns, with thoughts that repeatedly invade the mind for no clear reason. Another key symptom involves compulsive behaviors or tics, often performed to counteract or block these thoughts. Interestingly, individuals with OCD tend to realize that their thoughts are irrational, while those with OCPD may refuse to recognize that they have any disorder.
9. How To Handle A Seizure
When a seizure occurs in movies or TV shows, the common portrayal involves holding the person down and placing an object in their mouth to prevent them from biting or swallowing their tongue. This widely accepted myth is not just misleading—it could potentially cause injury or even death. First, it’s physiologically impossible to ‘swallow your tongue.’ While biting your tongue can happen, the damage is rarely severe. On the other hand, inserting objects into the mouth during a seizure can lead to choking or broken teeth. It’s even possible that a person could bite down on a hard object, chipping or loosening a tooth, and subsequently choking on that tooth as it falls into their throat. Plus, putting your fingers in their mouth could result in them biting you.
Trying to hold a seizing person down in order to ‘prevent harm’ is more likely to hurt them or yourself. The proper approach involves removing any nearby sharp or hard objects and using something soft to cushion their head. If possible, gently rolling them onto their side is also a good idea. The critical thing to avoid is inserting something into their mouth or restraining them forcefully—that's a common Hollywood trope meant to heighten dramatic tension in scenes, but it’s entirely wrong.
8. People with Bipolar Disorder Are Time Bombs Waiting to Explode
This misconception is so prevalent that it has become ingrained in popular culture, often influencing how people perceive bipolar disorder in real life. The term is frequently used to describe someone who seems to explode in anger over minor issues, but that’s far from the truth. A person may be experiencing a lack of sleep, stress, caffeine imbalance, or even a different behavioral issue, but having a short temper isn’t a symptom of bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder, sometimes referred to as manic depression, is characterized by intense mood swings that range from extreme highs to deep lows. However, even in the rarer case of rapid cycling, where someone transitions between these extremes quickly, it’s unheard of for this to occur within a single day. In fact, the criteria for rapid-cycling bipolar disorder specify that a person may go through four or more episodes of depression or mania over the course of a year. Neither of these states is linked to uncontrollable rage. In fact, the depressive state is often mistaken for general depression, complicating diagnosis, while the manic state involves elevated mood, risky behaviors, and increased energy. Sometimes, individuals experience both at once, known as a ‘mixed episode.’ So if your boss snaps at you unexpectedly, they might just be rude, but they are likely not bipolar.
7. Breaching Doctor-Patient Confidentiality
Hollywood often takes liberties with the rules surrounding doctor-patient confidentiality. For the sake of drama, movie therapists are shown hesitating to reveal client information, even when it's the key to helping a group of determined detectives or a quirky animal solve a big case involving a troubled patient.
In reality, the rules about doctor-patient confidentiality are straightforward and not overly complicated. Like any medical records, mental health information is highly sensitive, and therapists cannot disclose it, even to well-meaning friends or family. The only exception occurs when the therapist believes their patient may cause serious harm to themselves or others. In such cases, they are legally obligated to share the information with someone who can intervene. This might mean alerting a parent about their child’s suicidal tendencies or notifying authorities about a patient who poses a danger to others.
Where TV shows and films go wrong is in portraying therapists as being hesitant to share critical information, forcing law enforcement to beg for access to their records. In fact, disclosing such details when someone’s safety is at risk is far from a risky decision for therapists. Current laws provide solid protection for mental health professionals who act on this exception. As a result, the trope of a psychiatrist taking a huge career risk to reveal confidential information doesn’t reflect the truth. Doctors know the law supports them when they need to break confidentiality for ethical reasons.
6. The Character Who Always Finds a Cure
In fiction, this myth arises from a natural desire by writers and directors to offer a positive resolution and leave audiences feeling content. This results in films often taking the easy route, where a character experiences a life-changing revelation that allows them to finally lead a normal life. They then have a romantic reunion, and everything wraps up happily.
Unfortunately, this is the complete opposite of how things unfold in real life. Most severe mental health disorders cannot be fully cured, and even those that can take significant time and effort to manage. While a character might have an epiphany, movies don’t show the years of hard work involved afterward, such as seeing multiple doctors, experimenting with various medications, and the emotional toll of repairing relationships and rebuilding a stable life. Of course, films don’t need to end on a somber note to be realistic. Depicting someone on the path to recovery, supported by a strong network, could provide a grounded and hopeful ending.
5. Autistic Individuals Are Either Geniuses or Completely Incapable
Films like Rain Man and Mercury Rising have helped cement the idea of autistic individuals as either possessing extraordinary abilities, such as advanced mathematical skills, or being entirely unable to care for themselves. Hollywood often overlooks the nuances, showing little in between. Aside from Asperger’s syndrome, which is becoming more recognized, autism manifests in many forms across a spectrum. Researchers studying the common stereotypes surrounding autism have found that these portrayals typically don’t align with the reality of the condition.
In reality, savant-like abilities are extremely rare among individuals with autism, and their frequent depiction in Hollywood movies can set unrealistic expectations. One father of an autistic child shared that he often had to explain to people that his son was 'just' autistic, which led to others viewing his child as 'doubly challenged.' Yet, in Hollywood’s portrayal, autism is reduced to either 'diminished capacity or superhuman ability, with nothing in between.'
4. The Calm and Collected Therapist
In Hollywood, many mentally ill characters are paired with a composed and competent therapist who listens attentively and provides perspective on their erratic behavior. The therapist may probe the character’s dreams, encourage them to pursue their ambitions, or offer advice that leads to a profound realization. These therapists are rarely portrayed as anything but perfect professionals, yet a more accurate depiction might show them as neurotic, anxious, and struggling with their own mental health issues.
Although it might unsettle some therapy patients (despite therapy being highly beneficial), many therapists enter the field due to their own personal mental health challenges. Moreover, there is generally no formal screening process for serious psychological issues in those offering counseling. This problem is compounded by the fact that therapists are often physically assaulted by their patients or discover that a patient has taken their own life. As a result, even therapists with relatively good mental health are exposed to an emotional burden far greater than that of most medical professionals. Furthermore, therapists frequently struggle to get the help they need from other therapists, even though they should be the most knowledgeable about the support they require. Even Sigmund Freud, who could have certainly benefited from therapy himself, believed that therapists should undergo evaluations every few years for both their own well-being and that of their patients.
3. Depressed Individuals Often Appear Depressed
Although depression is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders, its portrayal in media is often unrealistic. In films, those suffering from depression are usually depicted wearing dark clothing, appearing perpetually sad or withdrawn, and isolating themselves from friends and family. Hollywood’s version of depression seems to revolve around a deep sense of self-pity, detached from anything beyond a personal bubble of sadness. However, this representation tends to be far from accurate.
In truth, many individuals battling depression wear a public mask that conceals their struggles from even their closest loved ones. Depressed individuals often engage in outward behavior that hides their inner turmoil, sometimes acting out to distract others from their pain. The outgoing, life-of-the-party character often seen in movies may very well be someone secretly grappling with severe depression. As a result, many people living with depression suffer in silence, putting on a cheerful front to shield others from their struggles.
2. Administering a Needle to the Heart in the Case of an Overdose
In Pulp Fiction, John Travolta is forced to help Uma Thurman's character after she accidentally overdoses on heroin. He races like a maniac to his dealer’s house, who quickly provides a large adrenaline needle. Travolta then plunges the needle into Uma Thurman’s heart, immediately reviving her. While it’s a wild scene, there is a small element of truth: an actual medical procedure called intracardiac injection has been used to treat cardiac arrest in the past. However, the movie's depiction is far from accurate, and Travolta’s actions would have guaranteed that Thurman’s character would not have survived.
To begin with, intracardiac injections are rarely used nowadays due to the significant risks of inserting a needle directly into someone’s heart to try to save them. Even if Travolta somehow avoided puncturing a lung or the pulmonary artery, which he likely would have, the injection still wouldn't deliver the drugs to Thurman’s heart any quicker than a standard injection. If an injection to the heart were actually needed, there's no reason to push a needle through someone’s chest when the heart can be accessed easily from the side, between the ribs. Moreover, heroin overdoses typically cause respiratory failure, not cardiac arrest, which means adrenaline injections wouldn't even be appropriate in this case.
1. People Are Aware of Their Mental Illnesses
In Fight Club [Warning: Spoilers for a 15-year-old movie ahead], the protagonist eventually realizes that he is Tyler Durden and has been living a double life, unaware of his other persona. In essence, he has developed a second, psychotic personality, making him two sides of a profoundly unstable individual. The issue here is that this dramatic revelation is far from realistic: the anti-hero suddenly figures out what’s going on in an almost magical way. In real life, people with mental disorders don’t simply snap into understanding their condition. Instead, it’s a prolonged, often painful journey involving a lot of trial, error, and many attempts at different medications.
In reality, many individuals go untreated for years because they don’t recognize that their issues are linked to a mental health disorder. Even if someone suspects they have a problem and seeks help, it can still take years to identify the right diagnosis or treatment. Often, the first point of contact is a primary care physician, who may not have the time or expertise to diagnose the symptoms properly. After starting treatment, patients might struggle with sticking to their prescribed regimen. Even if they do take their medication as directed, there’s no guarantee it will work for their particular condition. This, along with frequent misdiagnosis, makes treating mental health challenges a slow and complicated process.
