#zephram cochrane in i just look up mental illnesses on memory beta as a hobby so if it’s not as weird as it sounds fair enough

[garakshowhole]

ik i joke abt memory beta past tense schizophrenia page but the whole air of oh we can cure that now surrounding certain aspects of mental illness in star trek is obviously not good and there’s this kind of. duality of star trek that comes into play where in some situations they act as if (certain aspects of) mental illness are curable and don’t exist anymore even tho there r characters who clearly embody them. which to be fair is something that’s always present when it comes to what medicine can and can’t do in star trek (bc the most important thing is that it fits the plot) but like…… zephram cochrane being ‘cured’ of bipolar + miles o’brien being told medication will fix his psychotic symptoms but not his depression has obvious implications abt which parts of mental illness ppl accept as part of the human experience and natural responses to experiences and which are external/unnatural/to be completely eradicated. this wasn’t what i set out to say which is even if mental illnesses were able to be completely cured in the future only ppl whose symptoms were picked up by and considered unacceptable to them and/or to medical professionals would receive that treatment so there would still be a bunch of people with covert/subclinical symptoms who weren’t treated and exist in a world where they’re basically being told the problems they’re experiencing don’t exist anymore and if they were mentally ill they would have been cured like there would be SO many ppl walking around telling themselves they Can’t be mentally ill and truly believing it and having no idea why they were experiencing the things they are or if they assume everyone does why it causes them problems