In TV series “Skins,” character Effy Stonem’s manic depression and suicidal emotions are portrayed by her hanging up magazine pictures of death, cutting herself and having breakdowns. Effy becomes dark, depressed and gorgeous as her boyfriend runs to her rescue throughout it all. That’s not always how it works.

In “Pretty Little Liars,” Hannah Marin is shown to have bulimia in an effort to be thin and popular. Previously depicted as “hefty Hannah,” Hannah’s result is a skinny girl who begins to wear glamorous clothes and gain self-confidence due to her weight loss. That’s also not how it always works. Although the examples may differ, “Skins” and “Pretty Little Liars” join a long list of media portrayals romanticizing mental illness.

To people who may not have a thorough understanding of mental health, TV, movies, books and other media become one of their primary sources of information. But, when the information is inaccurately represented, false perceptions arise.

Romanticization is only one of the misrepresentations of mental illness but it happens to be very prevalent in today’s society. Even social media takes on the glorification of these mental illnesses and circulates black and white pictures of depressed characters crying into their lover’s arms, furthering the mental health stigma at a pace like never before.

When people begin to see misrepresentations, they are desensitised to the matter at hand and thus mental illness goes from the extreme of a taboo to the extreme of “oh, everybody has it.” Depression is seen as a common “aesthetic” in people’s lives, taking the form of black and white filters in social media. Eating disorders become a slight insecurity. Suddenly, it’s almost a competition of who has it worse and the worse you have it, the more appealing it is.

Truth be told, depression is not just crying under a black and white filter. It can be laying in bed for three days not being able to remember when you last showered. Anxiety is not just getting nervous and fixing it all up with a hug. It may be feeling like vines are growing upon your lungs and an overload to the system is going to make it crash. Eating disorders are not just skinny girls afraid to eat that salad. They’re often filled with nausea, dizziness, and not being able to swallow because one look makes you want to lose it all again.

In the media, these things people endure are cast aside and disregarded. Public perception begins to view mental illness as a fad, an aesthetic to aspire to have and the true brutality is concealed.

To get out of this misunderstanding, there is only one way. Stop making other’s pain appealing. Stop desensitizing society to other’s pain. Stop romanticizing the toll mental illness forces someone to pay.