17 shows that positively discuss mental health

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Many shows handle suicide and suicide attempt with sensitivity, and, thankfully, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend isn’t any different. As the series builds off Rebecca’s mental health positive arc where she tries to seek professional health (along with a diagnosis), “I Never Want to See Josh Again” also features natural regression that comes with depressive ideology.

After Rebecca’s character made a sudden realization about her mental health, she attempted suicide. However, the serious uses her attempts to show that finding the right diagnosis and treatment can actively help someone’s mental health — even though it is still a gradual process that isn’t devoid of setbacks.

However, the entire show builds on some of Rebecca’s childhood traumas and how she projects those traumas into unhealthy coping mechanisms, like obsessive tendencies. The show works to reclaim the “crazy” moniker, which only becomes more obvious after Rebecca seeks psychiatric help. This lead to her borderline personality disorder (BPD) diagnosis.

As a whole, borderline personality disorder is rarely discussed in any show. Beyond its rare pop culture cameos, few shows refrain from villainizing the mental health condition and people who have BPD. While Crazy Ex-Girlfriend illustrates Rebecca’s personality shift from a deeply caring friend and person to some of her more toxic personality traits, it also doesn’t conflate her BPD with her problematic proclivity.

In fact, the series shifts the mental health discussion to Rebecca herself, where she takes agency over her own mental health and start treatments for herself. She becomes more in tune not only with her behavior and how she can change it to avoid hurting her friends, but Rebecca doesn’t blame her behavior on her BPD. She doesn’t use her mental health as an excuse, and instead of trying to change how others perceive and react her and her BPD, she focuses on the things can take care of: her mental health.