CONTENT WARNING: mental illness

If you watched television in the past few years, you have probably seen at least one character who suffers from an unspecified mental illness. Their illness is never diagnosed or given any kind of name. This is so common that my fiancé coined a term for it: Unspecified Mental Illness Syndrome (UMIS). The character’s symptoms are often cherry-picked for maximum dramatic effect from one or more mental illnesses. The symptoms can last anywhere from one episode to the entirety of a character’s tenure, as the plot requires. Once the purposes of the plot are served, a character’s UMIS is often shunted aside, to only be trotted out again when necessary, if ever again.

I can easily think of several examples of this off the top of my head, and I have seen at least one episode of each:

• Don Draper of Mad Men suffers through what seems to be a seven-season-long depressive episode, but his illness is never explicitly discussed although it serves as the driving factor behind many of his questionable choices.
• Will Graham of Hannibal has auditory and visual hallucinations and impaired social skills. The only treatment he is ever seen to receive is from psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (yes, that Hannibal Lecter) who is, needless to say, not the best representation of mental health professionals. Though his illness is discussed plenty, Will never gets a diagnosis from a non-murderous psychiatrist or doctor, not even an informal one, which is an accomplishment given that he interacts with two mental health professionals on a regular basis.
• Sherlock Holmes of Sherlock exhibits extreme impairment in social interaction as well as the restricted interests and repetitive behavior often associated with autism. This is never once discussed. However, he self-diagnoses as a “high-functioning sociopath” despite the fact that such a condition is not listed in the DSM-5, the manual used to diagnose mental illnesses. His UMIS is often used as an excuse for his poor treatment of others.
• Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory also exhibits the classic signs of autism. Despite being asked directly, the creators of the show deny that he is autistic and instead describe his behavior as “Sheldony.” His UMIS often serves as the punchline of other characters’ jokes.

These are just a few examples, and this list is by no means exhaustive.

So why is this problematic?

“Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself.”

Spoken by Albus Dumbledore, one of my fictional childhood heroes, these words have stuck with me into adulthood. Refusing to call Voldemort by his name increases his power; the same is true with mental illness. By refusing to name or even explicitly discuss a character’s mental illness, these shows further perpetuate the stigma on the mentally ill. They encourage mentally ill viewers and their friends to continue to keep their silence on their own illnesses, just like characters on television.

I have been suffering from depression for almost as long as I can remember, but I never told anyone about it until I was 19 and entertaining suicidal thoughts on a daily basis. Sometimes, I wonder if I would have spoken out sooner if I felt that I was not breaking a cultural taboo by naming my illness and expressing it explicitly. Perhaps if television had not taught me that mental illness was to be suffered in silence, I would have sought help sooner.

Nowadays, I am much better at managing my illness than I was four years ago, thanks to therapy, medication, and the support of my family and friends. All of this came only after I spoke out about my depression. Still, I wonder how many more suffering from mental illness would find the courage to speak up if only the taboo were threatened, if only they had ready access to portrayals of mental illness in television that openly addressed it?

UMIS is problematic in other ways, too. Failing to name a character’s illness means the writers and creators of a show can claim plausible deniability if they portray the illness inaccurately or offensively, all while denying the mentally ill true representation. The creators of Big Bang Theory have done this with Sheldon and his implied autism. Co-creator Bill Prady has even said that he does not know if Sheldon’s behavior is comparable to autism.

This is more than just lazy writing; this is the creators covering their bases. Since Sheldon is not explicitly autistic, they are immune to criticisms of his character on those grounds. And in the meantime, they get to play his “Sheldony” behavior for laughs without coming off as offensive.

Leaving a character’s mental illness as unspecified allows writers and creators to use their illness as a transparent plot device. Don Draper’s unnamed depression conveniently drives large chunks of the plot, as does Will Graham’s hodge-podge of mental illness symptoms. This would be fine otherwise, but because their illnesses are unspecified, they are too often disregarded when inconvenient to the plot. This is not how mental illness works, but this is the message that UMIS conveys to viewers, particularly those who are not mentally ill themselves. My depression cannot be shunted aside when I have other things to do.

So this goes out to all television writers and show creators: if you create a mentally ill character, you owe it to all the mentally ill viewers to do the research required to portray the illness accurately and to give their illness the screen time it deserves. You owe it to them to name the illness or at least discuss their illness as an illness explicitly; you certainly do not get to use their illness as nothing more than a plot device or the butt of a joke.

In other words, do better, because we, the mentally ill, deserve better.