Students from all over the world have gone through exactly the same problem— faced the exact same fears. You're afraid your condition, whatever it may be, is controlling your life by forcing you to come here... But as long as you are acting on fear, you aren't going to make progress. If all you're doing is trying not to get worse, you're not going to get better. Of course this school isn't perfect — none of us are. What's important is that you focus on what we can give you, not what's taken away.
— Ela, Missing Stars
Many people suffer from mental illness. Recovering from it is, more often than not, a long (sometimes lifetime-spanning) and challenging journey, with many illnesses not even having "cures".
In fiction, characters with huge amounts of trauma and mental illness often have arcs where they learn to live with their troubles. Not always, however, does the end result have the character being "fixed" of their illness. They'll often learn how to cope with their illness and make progress, but the arcs often end open-ended, with them still having symptoms. Often, writers will give them friends and loved ones who stay by their side throughout the healing process, no matter how long it takes. Certainly, someone in their lives will display Compassion for the Mentally Ill. They may even have a therapist (or Amateur Therapist) who helps them better understand why they've been struggling and what they can do to start working through their issues.
Widespread use of this trope is a relatively recent occurrence thanks to improvements in mental health research and care. Historically, depictions of mental illness and mental illness recovery have been basic and full of misconceptions. The more sensitive and thorough portrayals of the subject greatly differ from the traditional portrayal of The Mentally Disturbed.
Compare to Coming of Age Story, I Am What I Am, In-Universe Catharsis, Sanity Strengthening, and You Are Not Alone. Contrast with Epiphany Therapy. Depending on the work, this may or may not result in a dedicated Therapy Episode.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Berserk: The Elfheim arc is about Guts abandoning his quest for vengeance (or putting it on hold) so that he can get Casca to see the king of the elves, in the hopes of restoring her to her pre-Eclipse state (during which she was so traumatized, she now has the intellect of a small child). He himself doesn't participate in the actual recovery since Schierke and Farnese are the only ones who can use astral projection.
- In Date A Live, Natsumi goes through a very rough one after Shido and friends rescue her from Ellen before her spirit powers are sealed. She thinks her true form is hideous. The arc revolves around getting her to accept herself and her honestly cute appearance, first with a makeover that ends with her having a mild Freak Out over her new, cute appearance (and inability to admit that she likes her new look) and ends with her coming out of Shido's pocket where she was disguised as a lollipop to save the day. Even after her sealing, her mental state is stated to be the weakest of all the spirits, which has the side effect of allowing her access to her powers when sufficiently upset.
- In Dragon Ball if you squint. The series is about big, crazy fights, and characters are often eager for the challenge, but on occasion, usually with the human characters, past fights are brought up, and they lose confidence in their ability to help in the current situation. Noticeably in "Super", there is an episode (76-"Forest of Terror") where Goku and Krillin go for some special training to help Krillin regain his confidence, and thus fighting spirit. The training ends up being a "Jedi Tree" situation with magical copies of their past opponents, ones they had, and apparently still hold some amount of fear over. The whole episode focuses on Krillin, and we get a "death montage" of all the times he's been killed, as the copies, including forms of his killers, trigger memories. The heroes of course figure out the trick to surviving and winning, and Killin is able to "get over" his past fears, enabling him to move on with his life and training, but it bears mentioning that not all the copies were for him. Among the Goku-spawned copies is King Piccolo, Goku's first real problem he faced as a child, and someone Krillin died before having any experience with, that's some decades plus baggage! This episode is the first to really address the long-term impacts facing these villains have on the heroes. It is short and tries to impart a message that fear makes problems bigger, and by overcoming your fear, you can overcome your problems, but it's almost never that simple in real life.
- Inverted in The Garden of Sinners: Shiki had a split personality since birth and was quite well adjusted to it, but then one of her personalities "dies" following a serious brain injury, so she has to adjust to being a regular human with a single personality in her body in the course of the novel.
- Horimiya: Miyamura is heavily implied to be suffering from depression before the start of the story, with his tattoos and piercing actually being a disguised form of self-harm, and might have even had some suicidal ideation when younger, and the story follows his improving mental state as he falls for Hori and gets a group of supportive friends.
- In My Hero Academia, one of Shoto Todoroki's major arcs is getting over his fixation on not using his fire powers out of spite for his abusive father. He's disgusted with himself for even thinking of using it and suffers from PTSD when reminded of the things Endeavor did to him and his mother. Even after Midoriya goads him into going all out at the Sports Festival, Todoroki consistently struggles to use his fire when compared to his ice but goes from being unwilling to stand in the same room as Endeavor to actively seeking him out for an internship to learn from him.
- In Sword Art Online, the Phantom Bullet arc is largely about Sinon dealing with her PTSD. Her condition is the result of Survivor's Guilt where, as a child, she shot and killed a criminal, leading her to have panic attacks around guns. She starts playing the gun-oriented VRMMO, Gun Gale Online, as a form of immersion therapy. Through the eventual help of Kirito, she manages to overcome her guilt and get past her condition.
- The last few episodes of Zombie Land Saga's first season focus on the reappearance of Sakura's depression after she regains her memories of her life, where her mental health was much worse than the dedicated upbeat zombie the rest of Franchouchou knew. Once the girls continue singing after the roof caves in at their biggest concert yet, she realizes her friends will support her through her failures and starts to recover.
Comic Books
- Aquaman: The majority of Aquaman (1991) shows how Black Manta single-handedly ruined Arthur's life by killing his son, which led to Mera leaving him. When not fighting past the point of exhaustion, Aquaman is lonely, depressed, and wonders how he can possibly move on from his past and find happiness again after all that's happened to him. After battling Black Manta and Thanatos, however, he's on the way to recovery as he lets go of his self-hatred, learns when to rest, and realizes Mera and Arthur Jr. would forgive him if he forgave himself.
- Mister Miracle (2017): The comic heavily revolves around Scott Free (the titular superheroic escape artist) undergoing a huge bout of depression and PTSD, unpacking his backstory as the son of various abusive gods/parental figures who left him deep amounts of previously-repressed trauma. Especially as the world around him starts to make less and less sense, how Scott perceives the world becomes an almost even bigger issue at hand than the war between gods that he's a part of, and restoring peace within Fourth World is greatly tied with his need to restore peace within himself.
Fan Works
- Ashes of the Past: There are segments where Ash uses Aura Purge to help people and Pokemon, work through their issues with a Battle in the Center of the Mind.
- Ben 10: Unlimited: Ben saw his entire family, his best friend, and his girlfriend be killed, and was so traumatized/wracked with grief that he nearly committed suicide. He was only saved by somehow ending up in the DCAU. With the help of the Justice League (along with the Kents), he starts to work through his trauma and comes to accept what happened to his family.
- Child of the Storm has several. Most examples relate to the Forever Red Story Arc in the sequel, and with good reason.
- For Harry Thorson, everything after Forever Red is part of this, with multiple demonstrations that it is not linear - as in, his recovery has definite hiccups, most aptly demonstrated in chapter 60. It doesn't help that most of the Forever Red memories were initially locked away (justifiably, as he just couldn't deal with them at the time), and he accessed them around chapter 42 out of necessity. This leads to a horribly traumatising flashback nightmare in chapter 60 after the events of the previous mini-arc jumped up and down on his Trauma Buttons, with the author noting that recovery from trauma is by no means a linear process.
- Maddie, also after Forever Red, though mostly for traumas that took place before it than during it - for her, that particular arc was both her proper introduction and her triumphant Heel–Face Turn, if at a serious cost.
- Carol has elements of this dotted throughout her appearances in the sequel - in the first chapter, Harry provides psychic therapy for nightmares related to the events of the first book, and after Bloody Hell, when she's recovering from her Near-Death Experience.
- Dragon Blade: Toushiro has PTSD from the events of the Winter and Thousand Year Blood Wars. His personal arc revolves around his recovery as he learns to accept his condition (which he is in denial about), accept support from the faculty and students of UA, and learn to live with his PTSD.
- The Dragon and the Butterfly: It's shown several times in the first thirty chapters of the fic that the abuse inflicted on Hiccup by the Vikings (especially his father) left him with numerous issues, including serious self-esteem problems. It takes over a year for him to reach a good place mentally (with the Madrigals and Toothless helping him every step of the way).
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: There is some focus on Ami and the unwanted mental side effects of incorporating the memories of a centuries-old Evil Overlord, Malleus, which she gets cured due to a Mind Hug from The Light Gods.
- A major theme in the Eleutherophobia series is Tom recovering from his Yeerk-induced mental trauma; this is at the forefront of THX 1138, where Tom learns that it has a name (Post-Infestation Affective Blunting Syndrome) and helps some similarly-affected children, and Ghost in the Shell, which revolves around a support group.
- Good, Old-Fashioned Values:
- During Jermaine's ninth grade year, his family finally begins taking his mental health struggles seriously after seeing the artwork he creates of his own death. Since Jermaine previously got a break from bullies by moving schools for fifth grade, the family moves from Nacogdoches, Texas to Quahog, Rhode Island. During this time, Jermaine starts seeing a far more helpful and professional counselor. She officially diagnoses him with autism and depression. In addition to continued counseling, he's quickly prescribed two different antidepressants. Finally, his family sincerely apologizes for not always taking his emotional and mental health seriously, promising to do better in the process. Jermaine's mood drastically improves in a fairly short amount of time. His situation at school improves as well after he starts tenth grade at James Woods Regional High School. Outside of one smart remark about him still being a fan of Pokémon, the bullying largely stops. He also soon befriends, and later develops romantic feelings for, Meg.
- The day after Jermaine encourages Meg to try therapy once she tells him about her awful home life, she musters up enough courage to see the school counselor. She's able to get a lot of stuff off her chest, during which time she cries. The counselor displays a great amount of sympathy for her. He then praises her for bravely opening up to both him and Jermaine. Lastly, he manages to connect her with the counselor Jermaine sees outside of school. She's soon officially diagnosed with anxiety and depression, being given medication for both in the process. Other than having to stop her family from using her meds every once in a while, the medication proves to be a good idea as it does its job of helping Meg. Meg also continues therapy. The biggest part of her healing is getting emancipated from her abusive family.
- The Splatoon Dark Fic Her Fractured Spirit deals with Callie's recovery after her trauma from the second game.
- After a horrendous "nightmare therapy" midway into Arc 2 of Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, Goh's sanity takes a complete nosedive, and the rest of the story is him trying to pick up the pieces...to no avail, as he just decides to let the Infinity Train pick him up.
- Fortunately played straight in the sequel, Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria, Goh ultimately recovered from his ordeal, but not without overcoming a few more challenges along the way.
- In the Spice Girls / Ace of Base Fic, Just Taken
, Melanie finds herself in two separate hospitals after a fight. The first hospital respected her wishes and didn't go forward with the sectioning order against her, as she was already at a place of safety due to her injuries and worked things out, right down to handing the worm infection. Still, Melanie was taken against her wishes to a mental hospital, even after showing signs of injuries.
- Little Miss Heropants details Lilac suffering from PTSD due to the events of Freedom Planet and trying to recover from it, with Carol helping her out as well as keeping Milla from knowing about it.
- In the Torchwood fanfic "The Man In Grey", Ianto is brutally tortured at the hands of the Master during the Year That Never Was and was still on the Valiant when time was reversed, leaving him with severe PTSD, complete amnesia, trouble forming memories, and a childlike mentality. The first half of the fic deals with Jack helping Ianto heal from the trauma, whilst the second half involves Jack's own PTSD regarding the Master coming to the front and him getting help in dealing with it.
- Mischief: Izuku starts his in Chapter 103, going out to therapy for the first time ever, which represents a massive step in his Character Development as he finally stops to bottling up his pain, specially after the horrendous Trauma Conga Line that was the Shie Hassaikai arc, and seeks help to improve himself. This also inspire several of his friends (even if some of them are tricked into) to following it suit.
- The arc in Now That You're Bleeding is Elsa starting to recover from her depression and also stop self-injuring.
- Most of the fic series Peter Parker Needs a Hug is this. Peter Parker, fresh off the events of No Way Home, ends up in Gotham and (after a series of events) ends up as the newest of Batman's adopted children. He slowly opens up to them about the traumas he's faced in the last several years, including the death of his aunt and Tony. With their help, he gets to a better place mentally and is able to rebuild his life and superhero career.
- The Price of Silk: In the aftermath of being mind-controlled by Pheromones and forced to fight his friends (and almost doing something even worse), Kabbu's PTSD and Survivor Guilt reaches its lowest, darkest point. A big theme of the story is Kabbu slowly opening up about his feelings and talking through his trauma. He reaches a turning point when he finally reveals that Bit, who sacrificed his life to ensure Kabbu's survival, was actually his mate and that their same-sex relationship, if it was ever discovered in the Northern Kingdom, would have resulted in dehorning.
- Recovery is one for both Yang and Weiss, where Yang recovers from her PTSD while Weiss recovers from her loneliness.
- RWBY: Scars:
- A major element of Weiss' character arc is healing herself emotionally and mentally after years of abuse, loneliness, and untreated mental illness.
- Weiss' mother Willow has been an alcoholic for over 30 years. She decides to go sober after Weiss' suicide attempt shocks her and begins seeing a therapist about her undiagnosed schizophrenia.
- Yang's character arc involves her recovering from PTSD after losing her arm to an Ursa, as well as her existing abandonment issues.
- Sunset's Recovery Arc is both about Sunset Shimmer learning to be good and recovering from her depression.
- Weight of the World: Alfred is put through the wringer throughout the series. He is kidnapped, experimented on, tortured, betrayed, and nearly killed multiple times in gruesome ways. The events slowly wear down on him until he is left with PTSD and depression in The Charlatan of Choice. His friends and family encourage him to keep on going but he struggles with self-doubt, self-loathing, and self-esteem issues. His arc involves him opening up to others, accepting their help, and accepting that he isn't weak for having mental health issues as he rebuilds his sense of self-worth.
- The premise of What You Knead (Naruto) is that Kakashi teaches himself how to bake as a coping mechanism, gradually working through his grief and Guilt Complexes. Sasuke also gets his own recovery arc, as Kakashi helps him realize that Vengeance Feels Empty and that he needs to build a life beyond the concept of getting revenge upon his brother.
- When the Bough Breaks: The Fourth Doctor goes off his rocker after watching a pool of dead bodies of the people who refused to heed his warning not to advance an attack, causing him to lash out, drown his sorrows and deck himself in all black clothing, not helped at all by his hidden feelings for Sarah Jane (who feels the same for him) and a malevolent voice inside his thoughts. It isn't until after getting his feelings out in the open does the Doctor kick his darker half of his intellect out of his mind and return to normal.
Films — Animation
- The entirety of Finding Dory is about Dory's struggle with her short-term memory loss, which she has had to live with for her entire life. While she initially despised it, she eventually learns to work with it and accept it as a part of who she is.
- Frozen (2013):
- Elsa's magic that she must hide from the world to spare her reputation is applicable to mental illness (as well as repressed homosexuality, eating disorders, the autism spectrum, etc.) - but there is indeed an arc about her learning to cope with the way she is and accept herself before she can function in society.
- "The Next Right Thing" from the sequel is likewise about Anna still having to go on after Elsa and Olaf's apparent deaths. The lyrics were inspired by both Chris Buck's trauma after his son was killed in a car accident, and Kristen Bell's own depression and anxiety ("the next right thing" is her own personal motivation mantra).
Films — Live-Action
- Although Airplane! is a very silly film, this is ultimately Ted Striker's character arc. Having to save a doomed airliner forces him to come to terms with his traumatic past as a wartime pilot.
- Due to Rule of Symbolism, The Babadook can be seen as this. The movie centers around a widow whose husband died many years ago and shows signs of clinical depression, which stems from her grieving, and from dealing with her young son who seems to have a learning disability and severe behavioral problems, which include acting aggressively and disconnectedly with other children. When the Babadook comes and torments them, their issues become even worse, with the mother eventually becoming possessed and attacking her son, until he reassures her that everything will be alright, she then vomits the spirit and works together to imprison it in the basement of their house. When they get a visit from the social workers, the boy seems to be doing better in his new school, and the mother seems to be doing better mentally and socially. Meanwhile, the Babadook is still imprisoned in the basement and though, it tries to re-possess whoever goes down to feed it, it's always cast away, showing that although the Babadook (grief/depression) can never be fully banished, it's best to keep it in check and not let it become the dominant force in their lives.
- A Beautiful Mind: John Nash comes to terms with his paranoid schizophrenia over the course of the film, although as there is no cure for it, he continues to live with it by the end.
- The Dead Center starts out as a stark, unglamorous portrayal of what goes on in an emergency psych ward. At first, psychiatrist Dr. Forrester thinks John Doe is just another - if unusual - patient. Aside from the supernatural/horror aspects, the movie portrays this trope with surprising, sobering realism. John Doe is sent to the emergency psych ward because the hospital doctors simply don't know what to do with him. For all they know, he's just some catatonic patient who wandered in and just snuck into a bed. And even in the psych ward, he's no shape to fill out the consent forms. Dr. Forrester secretly - and illegally - admits him into the ward, because he knows John Doe would probably get left to rot in some corner otherwise. And even then, patients can't legally be put under involuntary hold for more than 72 hours. Dr. Forrester resorts to hypnosis after more conventional methods don't work. There often aren't enough medical staff on hand, so sometimes patients go unsupervised, with tragic results. While John Doe eventually remembers things, it's really the demon inside taking complete control and imitating him to be discharged more quickly. The scene of his panicking father coming to pick him up after thinking John had died is exactly how these situations can play out.
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe has dipped into this a couple of times:
- Iron Man 3 features Tony Stark grappling with anxiety attacks and PTSD after the events of The Avengers (2012). He's achieved a kind of peace by the end of the movie, but still suffers from both conditions, with his anxiety and paranoia in particular causing several problems down the road.
- Thor's character arc in Avengers: Endgame is about dealing with a mental breakdown, and subsequent depression, caused by the Trauma Conga Line his life's become. When we see him after the Time Skip, he's spent years drinking heavily, becoming obese, rarely leaving his house, and spending most of his time playing video games: the rest of the movie is him working through it.
- My Name Is Emily is about a suicidal teenage girl with a psychological disorder somewhat overcoming her trauma and falling in love. A supporting character is her father, who was committed to a mental hospital, and is likewise out of it by the end.
- Now, Voyager is a 1942 film about a repressed spinster who's had to deal with years of emotional abuse from her mother. At the film's opening, a psychologist is called by her sister and takes her into therapy; the rest of the film is about her trying to readjust to life post-therapy. In the book the film is adapted from, the love interest also had mental health problems but this is relegated to subtext in the finished film. It was based on author Olive Prouty's own experiences after two nervous breakdowns.
- Parenthood: Deconstructed with Kevin and how his father Gil handles his anxiety issues. When his school teachers want Kevin to transfer to a special needs class, Gil resists out of fear that Kevin will be seen as an outsider. Instead, he tries harder to be there more for Kevin and support him, culminating in him stepping up to save his birthday party when the cowboy actor he hired can't make it. Later, Kevin has another anxiety attack when he loses his retainer at a pizza place, showing that Gil's actions, however well-intentioned and caring, weren't a substitute for the proper therapy and support that Kevin actually needed. In the end, Kevin gets transferred and starts going to therapy, which seems to be working for him; he's even comfortable enough to joke about it.
- An extremely quick example in Pollyanna (1960). Pollyanna is left without the use of her legs after she falls from the roof of her aunt's house. As she's, well, The Pollyanna, this causes a Despair Event Horizon where her cheerful disposition completely breaks. There is an operation that could allow her to walk again, but the doctor warns that her depression could prevent her from doing even that. Cue the entire town turning up at the house to thank her for how she improved their lives with her 'glad game' - and it ends with her leaving to go and get the operation (the book confirms she does walk again, but the film leaves it open).
- The Snake Pit is about a schizophrenic woman's experience in a 1940s mental hospital. It's based on the autobiography of Mary Jane Ward. The film was revolutionary and led to a marked improvement in mental hospital facilities in the United States.
- Sucker Punch is about trauma survivors and sexual assault victims using performance therapy to cope with the abuse they suffer from a corrupt orderly in a Bedlam House. The vivid fantasy action sequences are in fact representations of their imagination.
- To the Bone is about a young woman named Ellen attempting to recover from anorexia nervosa.
- In The Three Faces of Eve, a woman goes to a psychologist trying to figure out the cause of her headaches and blackouts. It turns out she has two other personalities but doesn't realize it. The film is loosely based on a 1950s study done on a real woman named Chris Costner-Sizemore.
Literature
- The last third of 17 and Gone revolves around Lauren learning that she has schizophrenia, dealing with its immediate effects, and beginning the recovery process.
- All for the Game: Neil comes from a physically abusive family and flees from his father, who is a serial killer. At the start of the series, Neil is deeply depressed. He sees no hope in his future and believes that it's too dangerous to trust anyone. Gradually, he learns to trust and let others in, making friends with many of his teammates.
- Ananda's Fall: Leonardo spends much of the book being treated by a child psychiatrist for PTSD.
- Best Friends Father by Devon McCormack: Eric suffers from PTSD and works through his trauma, with much help from his lover Jesse.
- Books of the Raksura: The reigning queen Pearl is introduced at her lowest point — her sister, lover, and many more of her subjects have died, her Court is on the verge of collapse, and her anger has estranged some of those closest to her. Her mental state improves alongside the Court's fortunes across the series' multi-year timeline, bolstered by the Court's newfound security and support and by her own dedicated efforts.
- Isaac Asimov's "Breeds There a Man...?": Dr Ralson is the mental patient, a physicist who is Driven to Suicide, but instead of following the story from his perspective, we see the efforts of the people around him to help him overcome the urge to self-harm and continue developing force fields for the American government during the Cold War.
- Break is about a teenager, Jonah, who is on a mission to break all his bones as a form of self-harm and taking the whole "a broken bone grows back stronger" thing too seriously. His self-destructive spiral worsens and worsens until he's eventually entered into teenage psychiatric care. When he starts getting better, though, he discovers that his deteriorating physical health might get in the way first.
- In The Case Files of Jeweler Richard, Seigi and Richard both undergo long processes of recovering from PTSD and depression, although Richard's is mostly in backstory.
- Seigi winds up in anger management therapy after the events of volume six and is still struggling with suicidal ideation by volume ten.
- Richard wound up on sleeping pills and running off to Sri Lanka after his fiancée broke off their engagement, and slowly pieced himself back together with the help of his mentor, Saul.
- Henry also has a bit of a recovery arc after the matter of a family Spiteful Will is resolved, as the stress it took on his family has been lifted. This happens mostly off-page.
- Chasing Shadows follows Holly's increasingly fantastic attempts to do this by saving Corey, and Savitri's confused attempt to help and stick with her friend. It isn't until the last fourth that she's able to properly grieve after being hospitalized, and Savitri realizes the best things she can do for her own health is to let Holly go.
- Choosing Death: The story is about Jermaine's struggles with depression, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts, and how he'll likely be dealing with/going through those things for the rest of his life.
- In the series The Dresden Files, the eighteenth novel Twelve Months is all about Harry Dresden dealing with his grief following the previous book's War Arc, which saw most of Chicago leveled and his Love Interest Karrin Murphy killed. For a period of, well, twelve months, he has to pick himself up mentally to be well again, with his recovery mirroring the city of Chicago rebuilding itself at the same time.
- Fat Kid Rules the World is about a depressed, friendless, obese teenage boy who meets a Kurt Cobain lookalike and joins his band. Over the course of the book, he opens his horizons and becomes more sociable.
- A large portion of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is Harry dealing with PTSD from witnessing Cedric's death and nearly being killed by Voldemort at the end of the previous year.
- It's Kind of a Funny Story is about Craig, a suicidal teen, who becomes enrolled in an adult psychiatric floor and makes steps towards recovery by the end.
- In Joey: A 'Mechanical Boy', originally published in The '50s, a boy develops autism because of his refrigerator mother, then gradually reconnects with his emotions and makes a full recovery.
- In The Stormlight Archive, the new Knights Radiant are all marked by trauma. This was necessary for their powers to first manifest, but their growth as Radiants is framed against their Character Development as they learn to cope with their problems.
- Kaladin has depression and immense Survivor Guilt from his military service. His arc involves regaining trust in himself, learning to support and accept support from his True Companions, and coming to terms with the fact that he can't personally save everyone.
- Shallan is deeply traumatized from her abusive home and has Repressed Memories of killing her parents. Her arc involves working out who she is beneath the masks she creates to protect and hide herself, even to the verge of Split-Personality Takeover.
- Dalinar is haunted by his Blood Knight past, which caused his wife's death, and resulting alcoholism. His arc involves accepting responsibility for his own actions, even when devastating memories that he'd had magically removed start returning.
Live-Action TV
- 13 Reasons Why:
- Season 2 devotes time to Jessica's recovery from her rape at the hands of Bryce, meeting other victims of sexual assault and eventually coming forward about her identity on the tapes.
- The same season follows Alex's recovery from his failed suicide attempt.
- Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer revolves around Buffy suffering and eventually recovering from depression after being brought Back from the Dead and dragged out of heaven in the season premiere.
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend:
- After two and a half seasons of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend playing Rebecca's mental issues for dark comedy, she finally starts putting effort into improving her mental state after surviving a suicide attempt, including getting diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, taking her therapy seriously, going to a support group, and trying to cut romance out of her life — with mixed results.
- Season 2 opens with the reveal that, immediately after the season 1 finale, Greg was picked up for drunk driving. While a lot of his recovery happened off-screen between seasons, when he reappears, he's still in the process of overcoming his alcoholism, and it ultimately leads to him finally making the decision he's known is best for him all along: leaving West Covina to study at Emory. By the time he returns in season 4, he is much healthier and more well-adjusted.
- Season 7 of Supernatural revolves around mental health issues. Sam Winchester, after returning from hell, struggles with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. He has visual and auditory hallucinations of the devil and has trouble differentiating between these hallucinations and reality. He hears voices telling him to kill himself and others. He also has a great deal of trouble sleeping which eventually causes him to break down and end up in a mental facility.
Music
- Eminem's music documents his improving mental health, although it's a bumpy ride (his mental health tends to crater in some aspects as it heals in other regards). Over the course of the Persona Trilogy of albums, he goes from a desperate poor person making fun of himself for a recent suicide attempt, to freaking out about the responsibility and exposure he suddenly has despite feeling unworthy, to accepting his new role as a countercultural genius and hero to children.
Video Games
- Borderlands 3: The "Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck" DLC is this for Krieg by way of Journey to the Center of the Mind. The Vault Hunters help Krieg out by helping both his sane side and his psycho side deal with their traumas (such as their perception of themself as The Friend Nobody Likes, coping with Maya's death and confronting their memories of the experiments that created them) and eventually help the two better coexist to the point that they eventually choose to perform a Split-Personality Merge to forge a new path.
- In the good ending of Disco Elysium, your player character will experience a transcendent moment meeting a giant stick insect, who communicates with him via Inland Empire to inform him that insects worship human beings, for the mental anguish they are capable of feeling and the worlds they can create in their own minds, compared to bugs, which have only the simplest of emotions and no consciousness. After this, your character is more confident, facing revelations of his own backstory with an ironic distance, as if surprised by how trivial his own problems are compared to what his emotions told him they must have been.
- In Disney Dreamlight Valley, The Forgotten's storyline revolves around the player helping them cope with their feelings of abandonment and depression when the other characters didn't know how to help or, in the case of Gothel and Scar, made things worse. The player gets through to them by listening, empathizing, and reassuring them that they aren't alone.
- In Final Fantasy XIV, the Dark Knight questline is this for the Warrior of Light. The questline reveals that the Warrior is heavily traumatized by their harrowing experiences as Eorzea's champion. Their adventures have left them with a ton of repressed anger, depression, and Heroic Self-Deprecation because of how much everyone counts on them. This culminates in the creation of Esteem and Myste, the physical embodiments of the Warrior's self-esteem and Survivor Guilt respectively, who take drastic measures in a misguided attempt to alleviate these feelings. It's only by confronting them that the Warrior learns both to stop repressing their feelings as well as forgive themself for their failures.
- For God of War, the Norse Saga is this for Kratos as he's thrust into the role of fatherhood, accepts the awful person he was in the past, and discovers his capability to be better. This is perhaps best expressed in the Valhalla DLC for God of War Ragnarök, which has been described as a "combat therapy roguelite" where his issues are tackled head-on, both with words and with weapons.
- Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is all about the title character learning to cope with her psychosis, rather than being "cured" of it.
- Persona 5: Futaba is shown having great social anxiety and what appears to be PTSD as she experiences visual and auditory hallucinations of her mother blaming her for her death, causing her to become a shut-in. After the Phantom Thieves help her deal with her trauma, her entire confidant is focused on slowly helping her adjust to being around people again and lessening her agoraphobia.
- Today I Die is a short web game about a depressed, suicidal woman regaining the will to live.
Visual Novels
- One of the main story points of Double Homework is the protagonist learning to cope with the PTSD from surviving a disaster that killed his parents and ten other people, while it generated a media storm that vilified him as a "mass murderer."
- A large portion of Leap of Faith (2022) has James do his best to help Cece battle her depression after he manages to stop her from jumping off a bridge at the end of Chapter 1. The most significant case, however, is in Chapter 7, after her second, nearly successful suicide attempt: James and the group stay by her bedside throughout her coma, and help her deal with its aftereffects, such as her amnesia and the loss of sensation in her legs. Her conversation with James helps her regain both, and he subsequently helps her with her physical therapy, later standing by her as she gains the courage to go to the Helping Hands mental health group.
- Little Busters! is a Coming of Age Story and as such, focuses on the main character Riki recovering from trauma he's been dealing with as a child. When he was young, and before he met the other Little Busters, Riki ended up in a car accident that killed both his parents. He ended up in a state of depression that only stopped when he met the other Little Busters, who became his best friends over the years. However, that created a new problem for Riki, namely that over the years, he became too dependent on Kyousuke and the others bailing him out when things got too tough for him to handle on his own. Combine this with the fact that everyone except him and Rin would've died in a bus explosion, Kyousuke realizes that if nothing is done, Riki will have problems getting by on his own once everyone dies. His Character Development is about him becoming self-reliant so he doesn't need to be bailed out by Kyousuke or anyone else. It's revealed in Refrain that the source of Riki's trauma is the death of his parents when he was younger. He became fearful of losing anyone ever again, so when the Little Busters befriended him, he began clinging to them.
- Missing Stars starts off with an 18-year-old named Erik transferring to a boarding school in Vienna. The school specializes in secondary schoolers with mental health problems. An accident left Erik with PTSD symptoms, which also cause psychosomatic troubles with his legs. Erik's arc deals with recovering from the accident. His love interests also have similar arcs.
- The main plot of Toradora! Portable, the visual novel based on the light novel and more focused on the anime version made for PSP, is about Ryuuji Takasu awakening from a coma and having Identity Amnesia, all of this after being rejected by Minori Kushieda in Christmas night and staying outside until the dawn, in the middle of snow. The game is about Ryuuji discovering who he is and what he did with his life with the help of his friends Taiga Aisaka and Yuusaku Kitamura, the Official Couple and Heterosexual Life-Partner respectively.
Web Animation
- RWBY:
- Blake struggles to trust and open up from the beginning of the show, and flees the team after her past returns to haunt her in Volume 3. She is a past victim of Domestic Abuse and her Psycho Ex-Boyfriend has made it his mission to destroy her happiness and her loved ones just for walking out on him. She spends Volume 4 reconnecting with her roots to rebuild the person she wants to be, and not the terrified, self-loathing coward he made her feel like. She begins this journey with Sun, who has the sunny, determined personality to weather her toxic lashing out without taking it personally; once she's on the road to recovery, she rejoins Team RWBY to continue working through her issues with their support.
- In Volume 4, Yang is the only main character who remains behind at home to recover from the trauma she experienced in Volume 3. She struggles with PTSD and depression as she comes to terms with her situation and begins the journey to reunite with her sister at the end of the volume. She continues to suffer from PTSD, occasionally experiencing trauma flashbacks or hand tremors in high-stress situations. However, she refuses to let it define her and keeps working through it, despite it leaving her more cynical and mistrustful than she used to be.
- In Volume 4, Jaune secretly trains himself at night, punishing himself for the harrowing events of Volume 3. During the Volume 5 battle at Haven, Jaune admitting that he doesn't care if he dies if his friends survive makes Cinder realise that he has become a Death Seeker. It's not until Volume 6 that he is able to come to terms with his state of mind, after an intervention from an unexpected source as well as both Ren and Nora telling him that they love him like family and don't want to lose him.
Webcomics
- Batman: Wayne Family Adventures: Jason is recovering from the trauma of his murder, with his family's love and support, which is highlighted in "Strong Enough". As Alfred says, "Remember there's no timetable for healing."
- Siyun from Dreaming Freedom goes through such a long zigzagged journey. Being a victim of career-ending bullying that caused him to be hospitalized and not finish high school and deprived of loving parents, Siyun becomes obsessive, violent, and overdependent on Jeongmin after meeting her to the point of getting jealous of her female friends and attacking her old crush. Getting called out by Juhyeon who warns him to stay away from Jeongmin and that he has an obvious mental health issue. Siyun gets depressed and his mental health worsens as he tries to commit suicide, but Jeongmin finds him and sends him to the hospital (again). After a while, he starts getting therapy and is put on mood stabilizing medications, and he promises Jeongmin to get better and listen to her. He regresses even with medicine, but tries again until he's fully stable and sane.
- Ennui GO!:
- Izzy Pritchard is shown to suffer from bouts of depression due to unresolved trauma regarding her abusive mother and mentions in passing at a few points that she's had suicidal thoughts. Volume 6 opens with her starting to see a therapist and the main plotline has her confronting the sources of her trauma. While the volume does end with her in a much better place mentally, a later comic (set roughly 3 years later) notes that she's far from fully recovered.
- Len is paranoid schizophrenic and dissociates often enough that her mother considers any day she's in a condition to simply leave the house as "a good day" (and supplemental works show that she was even worse off as a teenager before her parents managed to find a medication that actually worked for her). Thanks to having Izzy and the others acting as a support network that can make sure she takes her medication on a consistent basis (even if it sometimes means forcing it down her throat), we see her slowly improve from being "that weird girl that shouts conspiracy theories in public" to a woman that's not only responsible enough to hold down a rather important job as a school principal, but be trusted to raise her infant daughter. And even then, she risks having another episode if she forgets to take her meds.
- Izzy Pritchard is shown to suffer from bouts of depression due to unresolved trauma regarding her abusive mother and mentions in passing at a few points that she's had suicidal thoughts. Volume 6 opens with her starting to see a therapist and the main plotline has her confronting the sources of her trauma. While the volume does end with her in a much better place mentally, a later comic
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Prince Zuko's entire character arc is this trope. His arc is a realistic depiction of a person who suffers from tremendous physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his abusive father and his sister and his long-winded journey toward recovery.
- The fourth season of The Legend of Korra revolves around Korra getting back on her feet after the traumatic events of the season 3 finale that caused her to develop post-traumatic stress symptoms and self-esteem issues.
- Mental illness and trauma are a major theme for BoJack Horseman:
- BoJack's character journey has him come to terms with his childhood trauma and unhealthy coping mechanisms, especially when his self-loathing and nihilism ruin his relationships with others. The main lesson for him to learn is that he can't fix everything from the past, but he can keep moving forward. By the final season, he's gone through rehab, but his ruined career led to an alcoholic binge, a Bungled Suicide, and a break-in that lands him in prison. However, even though he'll never fully get rid of his mental illness, he knows there can be good days ahead if he tries for them.
- Diane's poor mental health was always a subtle aspect of her character, but her explicit struggle with depression becomes a major arc in the final season. After struggling to write her memoirs, she goes on antidepressants despite her initial reluctance. This leaves her happier, but seemingly unable to write a book about her trauma because she feels "too happy". Eventually she realizes she doesn't need to suffer for her art and instead writes a series of upbeat mystery novels for tween girls.
- Miraculous Ladybug:
- In season 4, Marinette's Control Freak tendencies spiral out of control as a consequence of being forced to become the new Guardian of Paris and seeing a future in which Cat Noir seemingly killed her for rejecting him romantically, causing her to freeze Cat Noir out of her strategies, which in turn causes a massive identity crisis for Adrien, as he's been using Cat Noir as an escape hatch, and without that, he's not sure who he is or what he wants out of life. Eventually, their individual dysfunctions collide, resulting in Marinette losing almost every Miraculous to Hawk Moth. Season 5 sees them both trying to rebuild themselves after this, with Adrien starting to invest more effort into improving his civilian life, while Marinette learns to lean on others when necessary so that she doesn't have to handle everything herself.
- Juleka's arc throughout the first five seasons is her working through her anxiety and shyness, dealing with her parents' acrimonious breakup and the way it's still affecting her and her brother Luka, and coming out as a lesbian.
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023): The bond within the Lafayette family is tested in the aftermath of "The Molecular Level." In this story arc, Lunella reveals her identity as Moon Girl to her family, while Adria struggles with her concerns about the dangers that come with her daughter’s superhero lifestyle. At the same time, Mimi’s history as the Original Moon Girl comes to light, further complicating matters as the family faces a traumatic attack at the hands of the vengeful Molecule Man in their own home. Though it took time to heal, by the end of "Full Moon," Adria reconciles with Lunella, accepting Moon Girl as an essential part of her daughter’s identity. Through this journey, the family emerges with a restored, stronger, and more united bond than ever before.
- Downplayed in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. One of Twilight Sparkle's multi-season arcs revolves around her learning to deal with her anxiety.
- South Park: The two-parter "You're Getting Old" and "Ass Burgers" tells the story of Stan's depression, symbolized as him seeing everything around him as literal shit, which is exacerbated by Kyle leaving him due to his cynical nature and his parents divorcing. After being misdiagnosed with Asperger's, he meets with a secret group that reveals to him the cynical truth of the world, getting him hooked on alcohol in the process. Near the end of the episode, Stan quits drinking and decides to accept change instead of being afraid of it... only for everything to return to normal in the blink of an eye. The episode ends with Stan taking one more swig of whiskey before returning to his friends.
- Steven Universe: Future is this for Steven Quartz Universe as a whole, as he comes to terms with the trauma he'd been through during the previous series and his loss of purpose now that there's no evil to fight. It most notably deconstructs the Kid Hero and Free-Range Children tropes (both of which were prominent in the show), as Steven grew up with such an unorthodox childhood that he doesn't really know how to interact with normal people, missed out on important things such as school and doctor visits, and never really had the stability that normal kids like Connie had.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): In the Season 3 finale, the turtles and Master Splinter are so soundly beaten by Shredder that their only chance to stop him would be to blow themselves up with him. Fortunately, they are saved by unexpected allies, but the experience leaves Leonardo with lasting trauma and self-loathing for being unable to protect his family. He becomes more angry and violent as Season 4 progresses, culminating in hurting Master Splinter in a training spar. Horrified, he seeks out The Ancient One, the master of Splinter's master Yoshi, for training to help him recover from his trauma and accept that he did everything he could to protect his family in that battle. When he returns to New York near the end of the season, he is much more like his old self again.