Let’s have more TV dramas tackling mental health issues, says the agony aunt

Most people, when they sit down to watch TV, want to be entertained rather than sit through a heavyweight documentary about a subject like mental health. That’s why I find it so refreshing that the BBC1 drama River – about a policeman with mental health issues – tackled the subject head-on, and in such a sensitive way. I’ve suffered from depression myself, so the way mental health issues are portrayed on television is very important to me.

For those who haven’t seen River, which is now available on DVD, it’s about detective John River, played magnificently by Stellan Skarsgard, who lives with the visions and voices of the victims from his murder cases, and suffers a massive psychotic trauma when his partner Stevie – the fabulous Nicola Walker – is killed. River talks to these ghosts, laughs with them and even fights them. But, apart from the viewer, no one else sees them, which makes for some very uncomfortable scenes.

Mental health issues can touch people of all ages, and about one in four letters I receive as an agony aunt – both on ITV’s This Morning and in print – are about this subject.

For years such disorders have largely been ignored by TV drama, as in real life, and it’s been left to the soaps to highlight the distress of ordinary people with mental health problems. Most recently Steve McDonald’s depression in Coronation Street was a welcome storyline but I hope we’ll see all the steps on his road to recovery in due course. Soaps, more than any other medium, could help people realise there’s life after a mental health problem.

I know all too well that stigma is the enemy of mental health recovery. When I was 12 I developed school refusal – a fear of entering school buildings – and to my mother’s shame I was sent to see a wonderful psychiatrist, who helped me return to school.

Then in my late 30s I got clinical depression after bereavement, but again a psychiatrist sorted me out and I’ve had excellent mental health ever since. When I recounted my experiences in my autobiography, a family member asked me, ‘Must you talk about such things?’, showing that for her and many others, topics such as depression are taboo.

So the more shows like River talk about mental health issues, the more acceptable they’ll become in real life – and the more viewers will think, ‘I’m not the only one!’ Most people who suffer from mental health issues can still do their jobs very well – like River. Let’s hope its success encourages TV drama chiefs to tackle the issue more widely in future.