3 Misleading Portrayals of Legit Therapies in Pop Culture

Movies and other media often distort mental health care for dramatic effect. But these inaccurate depictions could be discouraging you from pursuing effective treatment options available for your depression.

Psychiatric care is especially vulnerable to stigma and misconceptions. Coming from a perspective of experience, it’s important to me to set the record straight.

I hope that after reading this article you’ll have a more realistic understanding of the myths and realities of some of the more controversial treatments in the field: inpatient care, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and hypnotherapy.

Perhaps with this information you’ll feel more comfortable considering or engaging in some of these treatments. They may even save your life.

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Inpatient care

Mental health conditions such as depression often have a genetic basis. In my case, I grew up visiting various family members in psychiatric units. I never thought that one day I’d be the one living behind those doors, trying to figure out how I became so depressed.

But when I started visiting my high school’s social worker several times a day, she gently suggested that I consider checking myself into the local psych ward that was contracted with my health insurance.

If you asked any of my classmates what happened in a psych ward, I’m sure they’d focus heavily on images of locked doors and straitjackets. But I was so desperate for relief from my depression that I would have done anything to feel better. Plus, I’d seen what inpatient mental health treatment was like, and I knew that it wouldn’t be scary. I knew that the nurses and doctors who worked there would be kind and helpful.

But even though I’d seen the reality of psychiatric hospitals, I wasn’t immune to all the misconceptions that run rampant in books and movies.

At first, I couldn’t figure out why the doors were locked and what the hell “AWOL RISK!” meant anyway. Was my mom going to leave me in a place that was so terrible that the patients tried to escape? What would I do if they dressed me in a hospital gown and took away my foamy black flip-flops?

And even with my experience, I still didn’t know what the other patients would be like. I wondered what might happen if I really “let go” and became so out of control that they put me in a seclusion room. Maybe there would be doses of psychotropic medications that would leave me numb and drooling.

But the reality of the child/adolescent psych ward couldn’t have been more different from my worst fears. I learned that the staff members were mostly concerned with keeping me safe. The bottom line was that I was still feeling suicidal, and this made me a danger to myself. I needed to spend some time in a place where nurses could watch over me and a psychiatrist could put me on a medication that might actually help me.

I needed to be in a place where I could simply breathe and try to heal from the mental health crisis that had nearly killed me.

My days as a psychiatric patient officially began in the morning with goals group. We also had art therapy with poster paint and spent an hour every day in the gym. My first hospital even had a swimming pool that was flanked by lounge chairs and palm trees.

When I was first admitted, my goals usually consisted of doing anything to feel less depressed. Closer to my discharge, I was learning some better coping techniques to manage my depression and anxiety. Instead of scratching at my flesh or overdosing on medications, I was learning some very important skills that I continue to use throughout my journey with depression.

There were nurses who gave us our pills throughout the day. And they didn’t dress like any healthcare professional you might encounter in the emergency room. Instead, they wore street clothes: jeans and sweatshirts, with their hospital identification badges hanging from their collars.

When I was in the hospital, the staff members expended most of their energy focusing on how to keep us out of the psych ward in the future. I learned that the hospital was helpful when you couldn’t function — when the depressive experience was so raw and unbearable that it was painful to sit in your own skin.

The hospital was doing more than keeping me safe. They were figuring out what was really going on with me, what treatments would be most effective, and how I could reintegrate into my life.

‘Shock’ therapy

I’ll never forget my introduction to ECT. I was brought up a few floors in a wheelchair and shown to a hospital room I would share with an older woman. She had a halo of silvery hair fanning around her pillow.

But more than that — more than the smell of the hospital or the taste of the blueberry muffin a mental health tech had helped me eat earlier — I remember that a hospital worker came to retrieve her for ECT treatments early in the morning.

She was getting her brain fried, right?

When I was merely 18 years old, ECT scared the hell out of me. I didn’t know what happened when the hospital worker eased her into the wheelchair and carted her off to another place in the hospital — the place where something magical must be happening.

When I was first admitted, she never left her bed. But over time, when her grandchildren came to visit, I saw her smile a bit. Clearly, the ECT treatments were helping.

Again, I never thought this would happen to me — that one day, very early in the morning, I would be taken for ECT treatments of my own. When the doctors on my treatment team recommended ECT for my treatment-resistant depression, I was terrified. My doctors must have been thinking that I was “crazy,” right?

I didn’t know what to expect — just that the people who were waiting with me to have their own treatments had this desperate sort of look creeping across their faces. I’d always heard that ECT must be the “last resort” and that if you had to lie down and let them apply electrodes to shock your brain, you must be “insane.”

I didn’t know that the people working in the ECT suite were some of the kindest, most compassionate medical professionals around.

Having ECT doesn’t mean that you’re “crazy” or broken. It’s simply a medical intervention that can work for mental health conditions that aren’t responding to medications or other treatments. I’ve become an ECT pro. Every few weeks I return to the same hospital, where I was once an inpatient, to receive my treatment.

After many years in and out of hospitals, I’ve received more ECT treatments than I could ever count. And I’m currently having maintenance treatments. The idea is that by having regular treatments (every few weeks, for example), I can maintain a stable mood.

Today, ECT is nothing like it was back in the olden days (think: Sylvia Plath, “The Bell Jar”), when psychiatrists zapped people without anesthesia. It’s not cruel or scary.

ECT is a very safe and controlled procedure. I’d recommend it to my closest friends and family members. When I return to the hospital every few weeks, I see all kinds of people waiting with me, including older people with canes and pregnant women. Some people are even in their 20s and 30s, coming to the hospital for treatments to help them exist with their depression.

In my experience, ECT is so effective, and it’s keeping me out of the psych ward so I can do all the things I so badly want to do with my life.

Hypnotherapy

I don’t have personal experience with hypnotherapy, but I’m aware that harmful misconceptions are pervasive in the media, leading to misunderstandings about its effectiveness in treating depression.

One common myth is that hypnotherapy puts you to sleep. Films like “Shallow Hal” perpetuate this idea, showing characters falling into a deep unconscious state after a hypnotist waves a pendulum. In reality, hypnotherapy is a deeply focused state of relaxation — not sleep. You remain awake and fully aware, engaging with your therapist while keeping control of your thoughts and actions.

This skewed portrayal takes away from the credibility of hypnotherapy as a therapeutic intervention that could be helpful on your depression journey.

Another major misconception is that hypnotherapy causes you to lose control or become like a mindless puppet. Movies like “Get Out” play into this fear, depicting hypnosis as a tool for controlling and manipulating your mind. But in a therapeutic setting, hypnotherapy enhances self-awareness and can give you a heightened sense of your thoughts and emotions, allowing you to address underlying issues without losing control.

Misleading media depictions just feed the stigma and might make you wary of seeking this form of treatment when, in reality, it’s effective for depression.

In a small 2023 study with 34 participants, mindful hypnotherapy not only reduced depression but also improved self-compassion and flexibility in thinking, with benefits lasting even 2 months after therapy.

In a 2021 study that compared the results of hypnotherapy to those of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in 152 people with major depression, hypnotherapy was just as effective in reducing depressive symptoms over a 6-month period. A follow-up study also showed that both treatments led to long-term remission for 73% of participants, indicating that hypnotherapy can be as effective as traditional therapy for managing depression.

These studies show that hypnotherapy is another solid option for treating depression and could be something to consider on your treatment journey, even if the movies get it wrong.

Takeaway

Again, so much in mental health care is misunderstood.

If you walk into a psych ward, you won’t find a bunch of “insane” people, barely under control by Nurse Ratched-like hospital staff members. If you happen to stumble into an ECT procedure in progress, you’ll find a team of skilled nurses and doctors surrounding a patient, just as you would in any other operating room. And despite the mystical depictions in the media, hypnotherapy is a science-based and valid treatment option for your depression.

I’m happy to say that modern mental health care has given me my life back. Media can spread feelings of fear or distrust about various helpful therapies, but hopefully this article clarifies any harmful misconceptions that have interfered with your treatment journey.

The mental health field helps us live our lives in the best way possible. Whether I like it or not, I know I’ll rely on treatment for a very long time. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all.