Misrepresentation of Mental Illness in the Media Protagonist The movie "The Roommate" revolves around a young girl named Sarah (Minka Kelly) who is starting her freshman year of college. She doesn't know that she has a roommate who has been diagnosed with numerous mental disorders that she isn't treating with her medications. When they initially meet as roommates, Sara seems innocent and describes very normal behavior. However, as Rebecca and Sarah grow closer, Rebecca develops an obsession with Sara and strange events begin to occur. Each of Sarah's closest friends or allies is injured and even killed. As soon as Sara discovers the symptoms of her mental illness, he becomes extremely wary of her presence and distances himself from her. Furthermore, he sees her as a threat and the cause of all the wrongdoings that occur around her. Diagnosis Depicted In the film, the antagonist Rebecca is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. However, the film does not initially present her as a person suffering from this mental illness. Rather, at the beginning of the film, Rebecca acts naive, innocent, and completely normal. As a result, no one has the slightest impression that she is in any way abnormal. Eventually, the truth is revealed to the protagonist, Sara, when Rebecca's mother asks her if she has taken her medication. Additionally, things become much clearer when Sara and her love interest, Stephen, find a bottle full of Zyprexa pills in her room, implying that she hasn't been taking her meds. They later find out that it is used to treat bipolar disorder. Dysfunction Depicted As the film's runtime progresses, Rebecca's true colors emerge when... halfway through the paper... but that she too is sad and very lonely. However, the scene at the end of the film, showing Rebecca's death, was inevitable and left me feeling empty and empathetic towards Rebecca. However, from a clinical point of view, I am a little offended by the way the media has portrayed his disorder as inhumane and monstrous. Likewise, I was disappointed to see that many viewers would have the wrong impression of people who suffer from bipolar disorder. References Crowe, M. (2011). Feeling out of control: A qualitative analysis of the impact of bipolar disorder. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 19, 294-302. Karriem, Vernada. (2011). Understanding bipolar disorder. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/ss/slideshow-bipolar-disorder-overview