“Euphoria” correctly portrays mental health and substance abuse

Author’s note: Euphoria spoilers as well as mentions of substance abuse and mental health problems.

The new HBO series Euphoria, written by Sam Levinson, produced by Drake and starring Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Jacob Elordi, and Storm Reid, shows its audience that mental health on television can actually be portrayed in a way that isn’t damaging, romanticized or misleading.

Rue Bennet, portrayed by Zendaya, is one of the main characters whose substance abuse and mental health problems are not hidden from the audience. Unfortunately, mental health issues are often downplayed and attacked with accusations such as that mental health issues are faked to “get attention”. By showing Rue’s mental health journey and her getting the help she needs, Euphoria helps break down the stereotypes and stigmas that may surround mental health problems such as depression, generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, ADD, and OCD. By openly showing her having a panic attack at school as a young girl, Rue’s mental problems are not normalized or trivialized, but shown as important issues to understand, especially helping those who may feel like they still need to hide their disorders. Euphoria successfully portrays mental health naturally and honestly, avoiding stereotypes that often arise when portraying disorders on television.

Rue’s substance abuse arises from her mental health problems. After a panic attack that leaves her hospitalized, she said that being given liquid Valium was the “feeling I have been searching for my whole life.” Then, when her father gets ill, she takes one of his pills. After her father dies, she uses the pills as a coping mechanism and becomes addicted to drugs. This backstory to Rue’s substance abuse portrays the more complex reasons behind why people start to use drugs, which are often not just to “have fun.” It allows the audience to question whether stigma, shame and punishment are the best ways to help Rue with her addiction. In an extremely powerful scene in Episode 3, we see Rue break down outside Fez, her friend and drug dealer’s, house about needing more drugs and beg him to give them to her. Fez tells her not to come there anymore and Rue starts screaming, “You did this to me”. This scene demonstrates the extremity of Rue’s addiction as well as Fez’s compassion. Not only are the effects of addiction shown, but also viewers can see what friends and family can do to help someone with an addiction. Fez is highlighted for his concern for her safety and wanting her to stay clean after rehab even though he could have continued to make money from her. The scene helps people to understand the severity of substance abuse, rather than glorifying it for the sake of television.

By setting the show in a modern high school, the show allows its audience to consider how social media has played a role in affecting mental health. Characters Kat, Cassie and Jules all deal with issues arising from social media and explicit content. After Kat’s first time having sex, she discovers that it’s been filmed and posted online without her consent. Although Kat manages to avoid people finding out it’s her and takes it offline, Cassie’s explicit videos and photos of her permanently remained online. With the male characters at a party all looking at the videos and photos of Cassie and showing them to the boy she’s dating, the show reveals how people negatively take advantage of social media sharing, forgetting there are actual people behind the screen they are looking at. Currently, sharing explicit content online non consensually is a very common problem that Euphoria criticizes as a violation of privacy and breaking of trust that can be damaging to one’s mental health.

Euphoria has started an important conversation between both teenagers and adults about mental health and substance abuse by displaying unfiltered, graphic scenes. Seeing the complexities of these issues allows people to question their demonization of people with these issues and realize why that isn’t the right thing to do.

With the announcement of Season 2, many fans are looking forward to seeing a continued empathetic portrayal of mental health that they can actually relate to. Mental health awareness is such an important topic that needs to be shown on TV in the most accurate way. Euphoria has set a good example to other shows as one that is capable of emphatically showing mental health and substance abuse. I look forward to seeing more follow suit.