Top 6 parts of One Day at a Time season 2

One Day At A Time production still. Photo: Mike Yarish/Netflix

The medication discussion

I started talking about this earlier, but the episode where Penelope goes off her medication is completely stunning. It’s something a lot of mentally ill people do, and even people who are regularly ill.

When you’re sick with, say a sinus infection, you might take the meds for two or three days … until you start feeling better. Then you might forget a dose, or forget for a day, or think you don’t need it because you’re feeling fine right now, but then you start to feel worse.

It’s the same way with mental illness, regarding therapy and medication. So many of us think we only need it for the worst days, or start to do really well, and then drop all of the tools that are keeping us on the path to doing well. Then we start to fail just as much as we were before we started, or in new ways, and the cycle starts all over again.

Seeing this happen with Penelope was incredibly validating, and so very important for everyone watching. I particularly loved Schneider using his glasses as an analogy, because that’s what therapy and medication are — they’re disability aids the same way glasses or a cane or a brace might be, and they shouldn’t be any more stigmatized than those things are.

I loved that we got to see Penelope start to struggle, and the women in her therapy group talk about when they start doing badly, and being told about what tools might help. I hope that if you’re reading this and you find what Penelope was doing familiar, you get some help, please. Go try and find some therapy or medication, or try the tools on your own if you’re not in a place where you can get professional help. It makes such a difference for all who are mentally ill, and I want you to be the best you you can be.

Next: The top parts of Grace and Frankie season 4

Both seasons of One Day at a Time are currently streaming on Netflix.