C4 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 , 2020
and started going to therapy after
opening up about his depression.
“I was in the process of healing
and I knew through my story that
I could help someone else,” he
said. “Because these are things
that get swept under the rug,
especially in the black communi-
ty.”Setting an industry standard
Over the past few decades,
medical professionals and advo-
cates have quietly worked along-
side creators and networks to
avoid glamorizing or simplifying
issues. But that work has tended
to happen on a case-by-case basis,
often as TV or film projects are
nearing completion.
“When a new issue would
come up, we would kind of have
to dig to gather all the informa-
tion and the data... what mis-
conceptions were and what we
should be emphasizing — often
times in real time,” Knowles said.
“Through the process of working
towards this guide, what we
found o ut it is that there are other
people at other organizations
that are doing the same thing.”
After more than 20 years of
addressing mental health in its
programming with varying de-
grees of success, MTV wanted to
“take a step back and say, ‘ How do
we think about this differently?,’ ”
said McCarthy. “And how do we
use our power as storytellers toBrumfield opened up about his
struggles with depression and
suicidal thoughts. The rapper
and tattoo artist was surrounded
by his castmates, who urged him
to get help. McCarthy said VH1
had been unaware of his strug-
gles, but “with permission,” pro-
ducers incorporated them into
the show’s fifth season. “We were
able to tell what we felt was a
really great and thoughtful story
over the arc of the season,” he
said.
“Black Ink Crew” has contin-
ued to show Phor’s recovery and
followed another cast member as
he began therapy. These on-air
moments can have a tangible
impact: The night after Phor’s
story aired, nearly 20,000 view-
ers visited the Half of Us r esource
site, according to a rep for Via-
comCBS. The episode also
prompted an outpouring of sup-
port for Phor on social media,
generating more than 5 million
video views and 200,000 engage-
ments.
ViacomCBS’s media guide in-
cludes recommendations for de-
picting mental health conditions
in people of color and in the
LGBTQ community. It notes fac-
tors, such as stigma and racism,
that may negatively affect the
mental health of marginalized
groups.
Earlier this year, Phor told the
Root he took months off filmingissues or addiction are ready to
share their story with the world.
Scandals notwithstanding,
both VH1 and MTV have already
made mental health a focus in
documenting the lives of reality
show personalities.
“Of all the shows I’ve worked
on with Viacom, ‘Teen Mom’ is
probably the one where we’ve
tackled the biggest range of men-
tal health issues,” said Courtney
Knowles, head of Jed’s media
practice. He cites last year’s “ Teen
Mom 2” fall premiere, which
dealt with one young mother’s
anxiety ahead of a family week-
end trip. “It did a really good job
showing the realities of that in a
way that was really informative
and educational, but also didn’t
take away from the entertain-
ment story line.”
Even “Jersey Shore,” for all its
eyebrow-raising debauchery,
spurred important conversations
about mental health. A 2012 epi-
sode revolved around cast mem-
ber Vinny Guadagnino’s chronic
anxiety, which prompted him to
leave the shoreside party house
temporarily to seek treatment.
And Mike “The Situation” Sor-
rentino has talked publicly about
his battle with addiction to pre-
scription painkillers.
Last February, VH1’s “Black
Ink Crew: Chicago” stunned
viewers with an emotional epi-
sode in which cast member Phorington Post’s Emily Yahr that he
still thinks the show made a
difference. “I do believe we
helped increase an understand-
ing and awareness of the strug-
gles of addiction and the chal-
lenges of treatment,” he said.
“And as the opiate epidemic has
unfolded in the public conscious-
ness, I think people understand
now even more vividly how seri-
ous this condition is.”
Chris McCarthy, president of
entertainment and youth brands
for ViacomCBS — which, in addi-
tion to MTV and VH1, includes
networks such as Comedy Cen-
tral, Logo, Paramount Network
and Pop TV — said part of the
Annenberg partnership involved
taking a critical look at the com-
pany’s own programming.
One of the biggest takeaways
was that the network could use a
different approach with unscript-
ed shows and the real lives they
chronicle, he said: “It’s not some-
thing you can just write into a
script.”
That self-reflection could lead
to changes in the way ViacomCBS
networks screen for potential re-
ality show participants, he added.
In fact, the media guide suggests
that creators get mental health
experts involved during the cast-
ing process so producers can
make informed decisions about
whether individuals who may be
struggling with mental healthon a home, a trip or plow it into
their retirement account.
You need to talk with your son
and his fiancee to see what their
plans are and what they are
hoping to receive from you.Dear Amy: Responding to the
question from “Lady in Waiting,”
who was contemplating
marriage to a guy who was
basically siphoning off her
money — the guy is a deadbeat.
I’m glad you tried to warn her
off.
— Know the TypeKnow the Type: I wonder if
she’ll listen.Amy’s column appears seven days a
week at washingtonpost.com/advice.
Write to [email protected]
or Amy Dickinson, P.O. Box 194,
Freeville, N.Y. 13068. Y ou can also
follow her @askingamy.
© 2 020 by Amy Dickinson distributed by
Tribune Content Agencyhow much we can put into their
wedding kitty.
Does the age-old tradition we
applied to the first daughter also
apply to the son, in that the
bride’s family picks up the bulk
of the wedding costs?
And perhaps the bigger
question, at one point in life do
you stop expecting your parents
to pay for your wedding?
— Wedding StressedWedding Stressed: At no point
in life should anyone expect their
parents to pay for their wedding.
Couples should be responsible
for financing their own
weddings — using their own
savings and gifts from their
parents (if possible).
Ideally, you should arrive at an
amount you are willing and able
to give to each child (daughters
and sons) on the occasion of
their (first) wedding. They can
put the money toward a
celebration, the down paymenthim — not through mutual
friends. Discuss this prospect
with a counselor.
Because you are triggered by
seeing comments this man
makes on friends’ FB pages, you
should use the “block” function
to block him. You will then be
virtually “invisible” to each other.Dear Amy: Wedding help please!
We have three daughters and one
son.
Our oldest daughter got
married at 26. We paid $25,000
toward her wedding, following
the age-old tradition that the
bride’s family picks up the bulk
of the wedding costs.
Our only son is recently
engaged and will be 33 when he
gets married.
He owns his own home, enjoys
a comfortable lifestyle and
recently inherited $25,000 from
his grandmother. (His future in-
laws appear to be very well off.)
Our son has recently asked usbadly.
First, you should
communicate with a counselor at
the Rape, Abuse & Incest
National Network (RAINN.org).
You can speak with someone by
phone, or use their very helpful
“chat” function to message back
and forth. You need to talk about
what happened to you. It is never
too late to benefit from
supportive counseling.
States have varying rules
regarding reporting a rape, and
RAINN.org has state-by-state
guidelines posted on their site.
If legally allowable in your
state, you should consider
reporting this to the police. It is
widely understood that victims
of sexual assault sometimes
don’t report until many years
later. You might be told that they
can’t help you, but you might feel
more empowered if you tried.
If you want to confront this
person about the assault, then
you should communicate withfriends because of him — and tell
them why.
Sometimes I want to call him
out on others’ pages when I see
his friendly or happy-go-lucky
posts.
I never pressed charges when
this happened because I guess I
was embarrassed and
vulnerable.
Now as an older person, I wish
I had pressed charges to resolve
some of my anger. I wish he had
been punished for taking so
much trust away from me.
Should I just quit Facebook? If
I do, I feel that he wins.
— Hanging OnHanging On: I have a number of
recommendations. None of them
involve you calling out this man
to mutual friends. Please
understand that even if you send
a private message, the recipient
could take a screen shot of that
message and distribute it
publicly. This could backfireDear Amy: About
20 years ago, I
was raped by my
close friend’s
longtime
boyfriend. Basically, after
drinking at a bar, I was so
messed up, they took me to the
place where they were staying.
Looking back, I think I may have
been drugged, because I
basically could not move. (I’ve
never been a heavy drinker.)
When I woke up, he was on
top of me. It changed my life
forever!
Lately, I see his comments on
Facebook — on mutual friends’
pages. It is really frustrating.
In the past, I just didn’t use
Facebook much, but during the
pandemic, I’ve frequented FB
more often, because I am trying
to keep up with distant friends.
I’m not sure how to resolve
this. I’ve debated sending these
mutual friends a private message
saying that I may drop them as
Woman keeps seeing her assailant o n mutual friends’ Facebook pages
Ask Amy
AMY
DICKINSON
help demystify [and] destigma-
tize it?”
A study published last year by
the American P sychological Asso-
ciation found that mental health
conditions from depression to
suicidal thoughts or actions were
increasing among teens and
young adults. Now, during the
coronavirus pandemic and on-
going protests against police vio-
lence, both cited by experts as
contributing to mental health
struggles for Americans of all
ages, advocates say it’s e ven more
urgent that media approach
mental health portrayals with
care.
ViacomCBS plans to introduce
the media guide at an industry
summit this year, for use by
outside creators working on
scripted and unscripted enter-
tainment. Even just under Via-
comCBS’s umbrella, the media
guide’s reach is potentially vast:
For example, Netflix’s “13 Rea-
sons Why” w as produced by Para-
mount Television Studios.
The National Action Alliance
for Suicide Prevention, one of the
project’s expert partners, led the
development of recommenda-
tions for suicide depictions in
entertainment last year, spurred
in part by discourse around the
Netflix show, which featured a
controversial a nd graphic suicide
scene that the streaming service
later deleted over concerns it
could harm at-risk viewers.
The media guide is unique in
that “it’s focused on broadening
what we think about when we
think about mental health and
suicide depictions, including
how to promote healthy narra-
tives around hope and resiliency
and coping,” said Colleen Carr,
director of the Action Alliance.‘16 and Recovering’
The thoughtful approach seen
in “16 and Recovering” was the
result of collaboration between
director Steve Liss — who spent a
year chronicling students at
Northshore Recovery and later
partnered with MTV to tell their
stories — and Lipinski, who was
adamant that the filmmaker fol-
low certain rules.
“I said from the beginning,
‘You will not show one of my
students using anything,’ ” Lipin-
ski said in an interview with The
Washington Post. “You’re not go-
ing to show pictures of needles.
That’s not what this is about... I
want to show what adolescent
recovery looks like.”
Vulnerable young people may
not always seek out mental
health resources, Knowles said.
But representation could poten-
tially change that. Entertainment
media is “one of the best channels
we have to reach them and to
relay these mental health mes-
sages and make them not feel
alone.”
“Decreasing stigmatization,
normalizing help, seeking and
really providing authentic and
human representation of mental
health is so important” for view-
ers who may otherwise lack
knowledge about where to turn,
said Katherine Pieper, a research
scientist for Annenberg.
In “Recovering’s” first episode,
Liss captures a group of North-
shore students at their prom — a
hard-fought milestone. A bubbly
student named Alba talks about
her depression, which she says
goes with addiction like “cheese
and crackers.”
“You could be the happiest
person on the planet, but depres-
sion is a sickness,” she says in a
voice-over. “It’s something in
your brain.”
“Mine will never go away, but I
can try and help somebody else’s
go away,” she adds. “And I guess
that kind of makes me feel bet-
ter.”
[email protected]in the school’s hallway. “The
world needs to be a kinder, gen-
tler place with people who are
struggling with addiction,” she
says. That sentiment extends to
the world outside the show: A
companion website for the series
lists resources for those who may
be struggling with substance use.
“16 and Recovering” offers a
glimpse into a shift executives at
MTV and its parent company,
ViacomCBS, hope will lead the
entertainment industry when it
comes to tackling mental health
on-screen. The forward-looking
approach i s outlined in a compre-
hensive mental health media
guide the network compiled in
partnership with the University
of Southern California’s Annen-
berg Inclusion Initiative and a
group of mental health organiza-
tions, including the American
Foundation for Suicide Preven-
tion and the youth-focused Jed
Foundation.
Mental health experts have for
years emphasized that sensitivity
is needed when it comes to ex-
ploring topics such as mental
illness, addiction, suicide and
sexual assault in media. The ef-
forts at ViacomCBS arrive as TV
creators are increasingly grap-
pling with how to responsibly
address those issues in on-screen
narratives and how to support
viewers who may be vulnerable.
MTV and its expert advisers de-
scribe the media guide as a blue-
print for doing just that. Seen as a
“living document” that will con-
tinue to evolve, it calls on TV and
film creators across the industry
to take a proactive and holistic
approach to incorporating men-
tal health and related issues into
scripted and unscripted story
lines.
MTV is uniquely suited to
spearhead such an effort. The
network was among the first to
promote mental health aware-
ness when it teamed with Jed in
2006 to launch Half of Us, a
Peabody Award-winning cam-
paign geared toward decreasing
stigma around mental illness.
Over the years, several notable
celebrities have opened up about
their own mental health strug-
gles and related issues such as
addiction on MTV’s airwaves.
But the network has faced
some criticism, too.
An imperfect legacy
As anyone who has ever sat
through a “Teen Mom” marathon
can attest, MTV — along with its
sister network VH1 — has a
flawed legacy when it comes to
unscripted television. Over the
years, a slew of questionable inci-
dents have unfolded on “Teen
Mom” and its spinoffs: In 201 7,
the network was slammed for
airing footage of an impaired
driver after Ryan Edwards, who
shares a son with “Teen Mom OG”
cast member Maci Bookout, was
shown driving erratically. The
following year, MTV aired foot-
age of Jenelle Evans, then a cast
member on “Teen Mom 2,” reach-
ing for a handgun during a con-
frontation with an aggressive
driver as her 8-year-old son sat
beside her.
VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab,” which
premiered in 2008, was heavily
criticized for making TV drama
at the expense of individuals
suffering from life-threatening
addictions. The backlash ramped
up after the deaths of several
former participants, including
former Alice in Chains bassist
Mike Starr, actor Jeff Conaway,
Rodney King, and country singer
Mindy McCready, who died by
apparent suicide in 20 13. Later
that same year, host Drew Pinsky
announced there would be no
more seasons of the show.
Pinsky recently told The Wash-
MTV FROM C1
MTV tries a new tack to address mental health on-screen
PHOTOS BY MTV
Northshore Recovery High students Johnny and Alba at prom, top, and Sam, above right, on MTV’s “16 and Recovering,” which addresses
the opioid crisis. Founder Michelle Lipinski, above left, says relapses are a reality, but students are not seen using substances on the show.“Decreasing stigmatization, normalizing help, seeking and really providing authentic
a nd human representation of mental health is so important.”
Katherine Pieper, a research scientist at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative