Navigating anxiety: The multifaceted representation of students with mental health conditions in Netflix’s 'The Healing Powers of Dude' and 'Sex Education'

According to the World Health Organization (2022), one in eight people worldwide experiences a mental health condition. For these individuals, they may experience significant challenges with thinking, emotional regulation, or behaviour. This article explores the representation of adolescent mental health conditions amongst students in two Netflix-based television shows: The Healing Powers of Dude (2020) and Sex Education (2019). The former follows Noah, an 11-year-old boy, with social anxiety disorder navigating mainstream schooling, while the latter features Aimee, a teenager coping with post-traumatic stress disorder attending a UK secondary school. Our analysis identifies three key themes: the use of avoidance as a coping mechanism and its potential negative impacts, the realism of support representations, and the positive influence of peer relationships on individuals with mental health conditions. These themes illustrate the complexities of mental health experiences but also highlight instances of unrealistic portrayals that may perpetuate misinformation. This article on the representation of students with mental health conditions in two television series contributes to screen studies by offering an interdisciplinary examination of mental health representation in media, underscoring the need for accurate and sensitive portrayals in popular culture.