10 pop culture characters who accurately depict mental health issues

Michonne

Okay, we know that Rick isn’t dead on The Walking Dead series. Watching Michonne cope with the stress of the apocalypse and numerous threats, raising her kids, and grieving this loss bridges the gap between reality and the sci-fi setting of the walker wasteland. Seeing as their post-society-society has a lot of unanswered questions, we’re going to assume that Michonne and Rick were married already when Rick pseudo-died. Without the ongoing threat of zombies and weirdly numerous apocalyptic cults, dealing with the death of your spouse is incredibly harrowing. With Michonne’s still ongoing grief, she gives us even more layers to her saga with her mental wellbeing.

Having been on TWD for several seasons, Michonne’s character development is filled with unabashed mental health arcs. In fact, she’s coped with grief on multiple occasions and in a couple extended runs on the show alone. After losing her first family in her television debut, she chooses a less than healthy coping mechanism: self-imposed isolation. But after she first appears at the prison gates, she gradually allows herself to accept others in her life and allows others to accept her as well.

She’s taken on multiple approaches to grief and coping. While we wish Michonne could have an extended happy arc, we know that’s not common with the whole end of the world theme. Since she’s, unfortunately, experienced an overwhelming amount of grief, she’s illustrated how latent grief can extend beyond herself.

After this past season’s final two episodes, we all know everyone should’ve listened to Michonne regarding the fair. Listening to her should be an unspoken rule of the series. The series’ dedication to incorporating growth is written into the subtext of her character trajectory. At first, she avoids people to protect herself from more tragedy, but Michonne has grown to embrace others at her most emotionally vulnerable moments in the wake of Rick’s perceived death.