Mental Illness

I read the article "Amanda Bynes, Robin Williams, and the Spectacle of Mental Illness" by Sam Dylan Finch. I chose this article because Amanda Bynes was always a favorite of mine growing up. I don't really keep up with actors or actresses or many celebrities for that matter, but I was surprised when I read that she could possibly be dealing with mental illness. The article talks about how society, nowadays, doesn't take mental illnesses seriously and that it has become an entertainment; to which I agree, and that just doesn't sit right with me. "Mental illness is not a joke[,] mental illness is not funny [, and] mental illness does not exist to amuse you" (Finch), and to hear that people laugh and make fun at another person's struggle really pushes my buttons. Finch mentions a lot about how a celebrity's breakdown becomes something that entertains the public. It really makes me wonder what our society has come to because mental illness is not a joke, and it can be deadly. Reading about how people with co-occurring bipolar and schizophrenia has one of the highest suicide attempt rates scares me, and it does, in fact, frighten me. I don't know how there could be anyone out there who can laugh about it. "Rather than recognizing that she may have an illness, they turned mental illness into a spectacle to watch, enjoy, and ridicule" (Finch) and that disgusts me. I think we forget that celebrities are people too, and that they're also human. To have to face the illness as the whole world watches, has got to be one of the hardest things to do, and now, to have them laugh as well; to see what our society has become, mocking mentally ill people, is really just disappointing.