Fifty Horror Clichés That Need to Die in a Fire

#31: Mental Health

  Note:  Today, I am going to be tackling real-life mental health issues and their representation in the horror genre.  Some of the things I will be mentioning here might be a bit sensitive for some viewers, so if this is too much for you to read, you have my full permission to skip this part entirely.

  When it comes to the subject of mental health in a lot of horror stories, they tend to fall into one of two categories.  The first is when the author in question does the research of said mental disorder and does their best to represent the issue in a realistic light.  Characters with attention deficit disorder are an example of those in horror stories that usually are treated respectfully by the author, even getting the honor a lot of the time to become one of the main players in the story.  Although they are depicted as being somewhat in the clouds at times, the author is careful to show that this is definitely not the case all of the time and with an excellent support system, these characters can prove to be some of the smartest players in the game.  Heck, these types of characters even end up being the hero a lot of the time.  Then there are the representations in horror stories of mental health that are badly exaggerated, to the point of making the character being depicted look demonic.  Bipolar disorder is a huge example of a misrepresented mental health disorder in horror fiction, having their emotional whiplash be seen as a sign of irreversible instability, who are heartless and would kill the people they "care about" in a moment's notice.

  Because of the nature this editorial falls into, we will be talking about the disrespectful route of mental health in horror fiction and how it is a damaging cliché that needs to be talked about more often.  Unfortunately in many cases, having some type of difference to the general public means a huge misrepresentation by others and in many forms of popular culture.  Potentially the worst offender of popular culture when it comes to mental health unfortunately is the horror genre, who uses the scary misinformation given by the general public to fill the audience with toxic fear.  As a result of this misrepresentation, people see the disorder in an even worse light, confirming their wrongful fears about it.  More hatred towards the populace suffering from the disorder is created as a result, putting those who live with the mental disability to be given an environment of constant hatred.  Thus, the people in question suffering from said disorder will develop worsening symptoms, have a stronger chance to gain depression on top of everything else, and even possibly question the value of their existence.

  It is a similar effect to how real-life creatures depicted in horror fiction in a negative light are treated by the general public.  After the film Jaws was released to the general public in 1975, people feared the very concept of shark attacks at a much higher scale.  Lots of people that year refused to go to the beach in fear a random man-eating shark would consume them much like in the film, or even enter a basic body of water without any sharks such as a public pool.  Some people decided to take a stand against sharks and all of a sudden, the creatures were wrongly hunted at a much worse rate then before.  Shark populations plummeted to an all-time low around the world, not being helped at all by those hunting the sharks for already cruel motives such as the next shark fin soup.  The film made the occurrence of shark attacks, which is less likely to happen then to be struck by lightning or getting crushed by a vending machine, become a toxic public fear that got hundreds of thousands of sharks killed for no reason.

  The same thing that happens to creatures such as the shark happens to those with a misunderstood mental health disorder.  If depicted negatively, a sudden public outcry is created about said disorder, and things tend to go south fast. 

  People who write any type of fiction tend to forget the power of the pen they use to compose their stories.  Writing gives you a voice more powerful than the common conversation and tends to be spread to places you would tend not to expect.  Creating a story that brings to light the true feelings teenagers have with a cancer diagnosis like in the case of The Fault in Our Stars has helped those struggling with the heavy burden to feel less alone, and be treated more like a regular person versus someone on their death bed.  Then there are the stories that misrepresent something like dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder) in films such as Split, that if seen by the wrong person can hurt those actually suffering with the mental disorder.  The power of the pen can be used to do great things, while other times it can stir up evil.

  Use the power you have in your words as an author to break apart wrongly represented social conventions, such as the ideology many mental health disorders equal being evil in some way.  Try representing these groups when writing about them in the future more realistically, with flaws and emotions the same as any other character.  Just because someone was born with something that makes the world view them as different does not mean they should be depicted as villainous.