Mental Health Conditions Portrayed by The MARVEL Cinematic Universe

 Mental Health Conditions Portrayed by The MARVEL Cinematic Universe

By Cathleen Avrilian

The MARVEL Cinematic Universe has done it again!

On the 4th of May 2022, the brand new movie titled “Doctor Strange:Multiverse of Madness” was released for public consumption. This has again allowed the MARVEL Cinematic Universe to check another movie off of their to-do list. And as far as the trailer goes, the movie caught the eyes of the fans well enough with the showing of the side effects of Wanda’s previous psychotic episode in the series WandaVision.

As far as MARVEL fans could follow, MARVEL Cinematic Universe had done a horrendously amazing job on portraying the comics and stories of each character and correlations that could have possibly happened. And what’s far more interesting is that they’ve managed to keep their work up with the trends of the social issues such as racism, a fight of morality, and others. But, while most of the movies and stories lie heavier on conquering the villains with their brains and guns, the producers and writers of the company also never forget to add a little pinch of reality and include a lot of exposure of mental disorders and issues.

And so, here are a few of mental health problems portrayed by the MCU :

● Depression

Depression itself is a mental disorder which usually is identified by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in daily activities. Simply put, depression itself is a low mood that lasts for a long period of time that affects your daily life.

Patients who suffer from depression would often feel general discontent, guilt, hopelessness, loss of interest, mood swings, excessive crying, social isolation, loss of appetite, and tendencies of either oversleeping or getting restless sleep. 

Depression itself has 4 main causes, them being family history, illness or health issues, uses of medications, drugs, and alcohol, or personality. Note that these written symptoms are not blankly the main cause. Other factors such as loss of loved ones, entrapped in a certain routinary, and others.

The MARVEL Cinematic Universe had often added a series of portrayals in their works. One clearly shown is from the character Wanda Maximoff. In the television series WandaVision, it showed how Wanda was heavily grieving with Vision to listen to her stories. With her long-loved brother being dead after the events that occurred during the Age of Ultron, it sent her mood down spiraling and lost with only her comfort sitcoms in her hands.

Another example was shown through the character Thor, upon the loss of his brother and his failed trial of assassinating Thanos. His low mood was shown in the first parts of Avengers:Endgame, where he was seen to be more silent and introspecting.

● Psychosis

Another disorder that has been shown greatly is Psychosis. Psychosis itself is actually a symptom, not an illness. It’s a mental disorder identified by a disconnection from reality. It’s where thoughts and emotions are so impaired that you’ve lost contact with reality. Psychosis may be caused by a psychiatric illness or health conditions, medications, or drug use.

Symptoms of psychosis include delusions, hallucinations, and being oblivious of his or her behaviors.

In regards to a character, Wanda Maximoff shows a great deal of psychotic episodes which birthed the show WandaVision. After losing her parents, brother, and significant other, 

she showed her reasonable grief by barging into SWORD Headquarters to see the remains of Vision. Her grief was unsupressable to the point where she created the hex as a coping mechanism, turning the whole city into her liking and fitting to her favorite comfort sitcoms. She made a world based on her source of comfort where she was once again met with Vision and her newly shown children being Billy and Tommy.

● Intermittent Explosive Disorder

Intermittent explosive disorder is a mental disorder identified by episodes of unreasonable and groundless outbursts and anger. The outbursts are often, out of proportion to the situation, repeated, and frequently violent. The clear signs of Intermittent explosive disorder includes road rage, domestic abuse, throwing and destroying objects, and other temper tantrums.

These outbursts are evaluated to cause you significant stress, have potential to negatively impact your relationship, personal image, professional matters, and in extensive measures might have legal and financial consequences. The exact cause of this disorder is not yet to be found, but a few factors that might have a say this would be environmental and biological factors such as how people who grew up in families with explosive behaviors and abusive actions would have a higher chance to have this disorder.

In MARVEL Cinematic Universe, the Hulk was a widely known character to have explosive outbursts. The concept of his character itself shows how his rage comes and goes along the way. His files also reveal that he exhibits common symptoms of intermittent explosive disorder with underlying AntiSocial Personality Traits. Even once, he admitted to Captain America that he’s always angry once in The Avengers upon moments of the New York battle. He exhibits extreme mood swings and uncontrollable outbursts that would lead him turning green. However, it was later shown that fortunately he overcame it by seeing Hulk as a friend and not an enemy as shown in Avengers: Endgame and also seen to have put Hulk under better control in Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings.

● Dissociative Identity Disorder(DID)

Dissociative Identity Disorder(DID), or also known as “Multiple Personality Disorder”, is a mental health condition where individuals who have the said disorder have two or more separate personalities. These different personalities control the person’s behavior in different periods of time, therefore often causing memory gaps and other problems. Each personality might have different names, personal histories, and characteristics.

Signs of DID include blackouts and or memory loss, flashbacks, altered consciousness, impulsivity, self-destructive behaviors, anxiety, and feeling detached from self. DID is also noted as usually the result of sexual or physical abuse during childhood or other traumatic events.

A clear portrayal was made through the new TV series and the character Moon Knight. In the brand new Moon Knight series, it was clearly shown how Steven has the strange habit of blacking out for a few moments before going back into his regular state where he becomes unsure of what happened in the past mere seconds or even hours and days. It was also shown how he had an experience with voices in his head which were actually just his other selves, and therefore conversing in an urgent moment to achieve a better understanding.

● Post-traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD)

Lastly, Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event, either experiencing it or witnessing it. It’s identified by failure to psychologically recover from experiencing or witnessing a terrifying or traumatic event. The condition would last for many years with triggers that can bring back memories of the experience and intense

 

emotional and physical reactions. Symptoms often include nightmares, flashbacks, panic attacks, anxiety attacks, intrusive thoughts, hostility, self-destructive behaviors, and or social isolation.

As an example, MARVEL portrayed PTSD well through the one and only genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist Tony Stark. His complications were caused by the past traumatic events of the alien invasion in New York City. In the movie Iron Man 3, it’s shown how he has nightmares and unsavory flashbacks which once had ever mistakenly summoned the iron suits. He also shows uncontrollable panicking and worrying from the smallest cause possible like breaking a crayon, Another symptom was shown from how he got an anxiety attack in the restaurant. It was known to be triggered by the whispered question, “How did you get out of the worm hole?” which triggered a severe anxiety attack, leading to him exiting the restaurant to search for JARVIS for medical examinations.

And there we have it! A few portrayals of mental health disorders portrayed by the MARVEL Cinematic Universe. And of course in the mere 14 years of creating movies and series here and there, there are lots of mental disorders that they’ve managed to include but aren’t mentioned here yet, but for now, maybe five is enough.

At the end of the day, we could see that no one is invincible. Anyone, and even heroes, could be struggling with themselves but it never meant that their conditions degraded their worth. And as a final message, for those of you who are reading this and struggling, we support you! Even these mighty heroes and figures can live through it all. You can too! You can do it!