Realistic and relatable: Welcome to Wrexham features two individuals sharing their lived experiences of mental health symptoms and support.
Disney +’s Emmy winning docu-series Welcome to Wrexham has followed the football club Wrexham A.F.C. ever since their Hollywood takeover1 by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Much of the content is heavily focused on the sporting and competitive achievements of the football team but there is also focus on the lives and experiences of the town’s residents. An advertising banner acknowledges how the show is in recognition of mental health and the latest series features two examples of individuals sharing their experiences of mental health problems.
The first (season 3 episode 2, May 2 2024) is Oliver Stephen, a local photographer and fan of the club who describes his personal experiences with anxiety and depression. He explains how his degree in fine art “saved his life” [00:07:13] but how he’s never been in the club’s stadium or attended a game because of his anxiety, instead using his camera to capture the football culture of the town. Attending a game is one of his goals as an avid Wrexham fan, which he achieves in the last episode of the season (episode 8, June 13 2024). Throughout his story, he provides detailed accounts and context behind his experiences of mental health problems:
“I definitely never felt like I really belonged” [00:04:57]
“Anxiety is always with you, […] it never really goes” [00:08:12]
In episode 3 (May 9 2024), we meet Dan Rowe2, a volunteer of Andy’s Man Club3, a men’s mental health and suicide prevention charity. Dan shares his experiences of guilt, self-blame, and difficulties bonding with his son after he was born.
Initially sceptical, he then describes the benefits he’s experienced since seeking help and talking to others at charity-led sessions, alongside the testimony of other attendees.
Welcome to Wrexham, in recognition of mental health, presents two people with lived experiences of mental health problems. As part of showcasing not only the spirit of the football club, the series documents the spirit of the town’s people and part of this includes several narratives of personal challenges being overcome. These stories can be seen as realistic, relatable depictions of symptoms and lived experiences of mental health problems. Reasons for this include the fact they are supplemented with lots of background information and context.
This is in contrast to our exhibit about obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in Love is Blind (2023-2024) where fleeting comments are made about experiencing OCD with little explanation or context. These have the risk of reinforcing one-dimensional stereotypes about mental health problems and leaving the symptoms they include open to interpretation. Welcome to Wrexham arguably avoids this by providing detailed explanations of what it’s like to experience mental health symptoms and what can cause them.
Welcome to Wrexham also discusses effective help-seeking for mental health problems which can be seen as another productive use of presenting mental health experiences in the media in this way.
