While in recent years improvements in the portrayal of mental illness in literature and film have helped to raise awareness surrounding mental illness and what it is really like to live with it, the stigma still exists. This, I believe is due to the lack of understanding our society has for those who are ‘different’ and the prevalent idea that mental illnesses such as depression and anorexia are things that you can just ‘get over’. Other theme's that are common in all four texts are centred on the accountability of mental illness. The cause of mental illness can come from so many aspects of our lives that as previously explained the diagnosis and treatment is nowhere near a clear cut as a physical illness. Some factors are predetermined, written
