Can Teen Soaps Take A Healthier Approach To Mental Illness?

Today’s Ypulse Youth Advisory post is from Canadian high school student Amanda Aziz on the portrayal of young people dealing with mental illness in American teen dramas.

As always, you can communicate directly with any member of the Ypulse Youth Advisory Board by emailing them at youthadvisoryboard at ypulse.com…

Can Teen Soaps Take A Healthier Approach To Mental Illness?

In the past when teen soap operas portrayed someone with a mental illness it usually was a short-lived story arc featuring an obsessive ex-boyfriend or girlfriend (Emily Valentine on the original “90210”), or just some random person brought in for “crazy” drama (Oliver on “The OC”). Recently, however, with more media attention on mental health issues and public figures speaking out about their own experiences, there seems to be pressure to avoid those cliched one-off appearances. And yet, when I take a look at teen dramas today, I still wonder how far they really have come?

One recent portrayal that caught my attention was last April on the first season of the new “90210” when a few episodes lead to a very special episode directed by Beverly Hills 90210 alum Jason Priestly. The plot centered around the main character Erin Silver being diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. On the positive side, the actress Jessica Stoup received a lot of good reviews for her portrayal of a teen going through episodes of mania and depression and at the end of the episode there was a site and hotline number for anyone struggling with a mental health crisis and in need of help.

At the same time, I couldn’t help but think of the limitations. Not every teen who is Bipolar is going to show up at their boyfriend or girlfriend’s house in the middle of the night, rip off their clothes and attempt to have sex. Not every teen is going to make their own sex-tape, rent a movie theatre and invite peers from school to a viewing and publicly profess their feelings… or show up later in the night in front of their boyfriend’s house and burn a trash can filled with evidence of the earlier incident as a way to apologize. In other words, not everyone affected by a mental illness will look and act in the extreme.

To me, the above sequence was used more to create extra drama in the show than bring attention to an important issue. It makes you wonder whether the show really put its platform to good use or just like every other soap opera, needed a shocking new storyline (i.e., the threesome on “Gossip Girl”) to stir up excitement and gain more viewers.  It seems like this “Very Special Episode,” even if it did have good intentions, fell into the soap opera trap, and was more about ratings than effectively getting a message out to teens. Moreover, once the “drama” simmered out, Silver’s mental health has barely been mentioned since the beginning of season two - unlike a real teen who would be dealing, on some level, on a daily basis.  It makes me wonder whether another storyline will focus on the issue during this season and if Silver will once again get caught in those extreme, stereotypical situations.

That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate 90210’s effort.  I’m just pointing out that these extreme depictions, even if not completely inaccurate, can feel exploitative and especially so when they appear to exaggerate a condition. Of course, as a teen soap, what else can you expect? For all of my criticism, I thought “90210” at least made a decent attempt to bring light to the issue.

Honestly, I thought it was a lot better than season one of Gossip Girl when a closeted gay character Eric Van der Woodsen was hospitalized after his suicide attempt. If this storyline doesn’t ring a bell for all GG fans, it might be because of the small amount of time spent on it. The show barely even went into the triggering factors that lead to his attempt, and quickly dropped the plot soon after as if nothing happened. To me, CW sent a poor message by not resolving the storyline realistically, especially considering the fact that today’s LGBT youth are even more at risk for depression and suicide.

These mental health issues affect a large number of young adults today: According to an article from MSNBC earlier this year, 4 in 10 college students are depressed and with many high school and college students still afraid to get help these numbers could be even bigger. Part of the problem here might be that young people don’t want to be compared to these “crazy” characters on TV. Especially considering that a large number of young adults aren’t properly educated about mental health and might accept what they see on TV as a factual reference point. In the end, even with these shows taking the important step of depicting main or supporting characters dealing with disorders vs. disposable guest stars, there still seems to be room for progress.

About Amanda
Being a true believer in the Socratic Method (no, seriously) and a 16 year-old high school junior living in London, Ontario, Canada, Amanda believes that asking questions might just get her somewhere. Even when it comes to finding her way out of the superficial labyrinth that is known as school, she is not one who refrains from a challenge.  Reading novels and asking questions are what satisfies her need to learn, and to get insight on different cultures (and pop culture!), languages (she hopes to be fluent in seven… good luck with that) to International Law/Social Justice and trends. Though she has many interests, she insists that music, hiding in the library at lunch time, volunteering, being a member of Junior Achievement, making insanely bad jokes, and wishing at 11:11 to be the “few” staples she can always rely on. Another passion of hers? Writing- whether it is songs, poetry or stories, which is why Amanda is so excited to be a member of the YAB for Ypulse. Maybe asking questions might just get her somewhere after all?