I had an episode of "Bones" on last night, more for the company than anything. It's not a TV show I follow regularly and wasn't paying much attention to it until the "psychiatrist" tossed out a couple of diagnosis surrounding a male character who was committing murder. They had never met. Gotta love the god complex rife in the psychiatric field even if this one is only pretending. Come to think about it, there are other murder/ mystery shows that do the same thing.
Anyways, the first was Post Traumatic Embitterment Disorder. That is only in the exploratory phase and is NOT recognised by the DSMV: the book containing every single mental health label. (Many people say it goes too far. Seriously it goes too far. Grief is now classified as a mental health disorder.)
The second issue the character was struggling with was Dysthymia. That is recognised.
It is a form of low grade, chronic depression that yours truly is very familiar with. It's like having all your emotions stifled by a thick blanket. Violence is not part of it at all. Rage is an intense feeling. If anything, having Dysthymia makes it easier to slip into the type of deep depression where getting out of bed is nearly impossible. I am thankful for medications that keep this at bay.
Here's the problem. On the heels of this "diagnosis" were the words, also describing the bad guy, "he's a sick b*****d". I was furious. This was me, my mental health challenge, they were talking about! It was so badly misrepresented I sent a letter to the show's producers via Global TV asking them to think about how mental health challenges are treated on the show. I asked them to step up and be at the forefront of a new way of regarding mental health. We need programming to help break the stigma, not feed the fires of prejudice and misunderstanding.
I got thinking this morning about how much weight people put on what they watch on TV. There's been stories of actors being attacked because of the character they play on some show. It may be fiction but when it is perceived as reality, when dialogue is taken as gospel truth...that is a scary thought.
Is anything going to come of my little letter? I don't know. I simply had to do something.
"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth and give them warning from Me." Ez 3:17
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Boundary Study Part 2
"Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God--truly righteous and holy...
I too watched that episode, and, like you, I don't usually watch the program "Bones". I also looked up the terms. Odd, eh? I wanted to find out what the profiler so casually tossed out as "reasons". Mental illness is definitely misused for "entertainment". (And sadly, Christianity is joining the fray.) I think, though, that the difference between having something and what you do with it is huge. Because someone has an illness doesn't mean they are going to process it to the worse scenario. As we know, it manifests in different ways. I'm glad that you made those that make those decisions aware of the difference. If we are going to be "educated" on forensics, equal education in mental illness is deserved. Well done!
ReplyDeleteWhat made this show different from the other psychology based murder/mystery dramas was the derisive comment that followed the diagnosis. It was a form of hate mongering; something that I hadn't seen on other programs. Ironically, some of those shows have helped me understand my own mental health struggles. It's all about what message was being delivered.
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