[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ental illness. We know it’s more than just feeling anxious before a test, or stressed after school, or upset after breaking up with your partner. Haven’t we established that? It’s tricky, the world of understanding mental health and wellbeing is generally a new one, as the younger generation is more confident about discussing the issues our parents and grandparents told us were either normal, or to brush under the rug. But overall, mental health is an innate part of all of our identities, whether you struggle with illness or not.
We navigate the right things to say, how to support each other, and understand each other as mental illness is an intricate puzzle for each and every person who suffers from it. We talk about removing the stigma of mental health so that those who need help can feel comfortable seeking it, and safe spaces are a prominent and healthy way for those who relate to each other to express their individual desires and struggles. Yet, have these safe spaces become too focused on size, and less on safety?
One of the biggest focuses of mental health advocacy is to remove stigma and generalizations of those who deal with mental illness. Of course, social media is a great platform to advocate for any issue including mental health, yet this advocacy has been being overshadowed by a new form of “relatability” – the adoption of mental health jokes by large relatable teen accounts on Twitter. We all know Twitter is a hub of millions of users that can be used positively and that has been used specifically to connect those with mental illness to communicate and resonate with each other. At times those who deal with mental illness form jokes out of it as a way to cope – because hey, when times get tough, isn’t laughter the quickest and easiest coping mechanism? There’s no harm in a little joking with someone else who understands what you’re going through in a comfortable and controlled space. It’s a form of affinity, which is healthy and common for anyone with mutual struggles or identities.
Sure is great to be completely inconsolable for a month and a half, too bad people make depression a relatable joke for the meme
— stupid leaf (@Archaiyan) December 6, 2016
@QueerXiChisme TBH: I really wish depression wasn’t seen as a meme on Twitter because people are gonna treat it as a joke
— mosh pit mom ? (@sadxchula) December 5, 2016
I wish depression didn’t become a meme because when I actually mean it, nobody understands.
— festive cream queen (@mercysmywaifu) November 29, 2016
Joking in it of itself is type a safe space as a way to cope, until it becomes appropriated by those who do not experience mental health issues.
What happens when a large twitter account (most likely a bot) with thousands of followers tweets an alarming joke about the deep struggles of mental illness for the sole attempt to “be relatable” and gain retweets?
The struggles presented within whatever joke are trivialized, as thousands of nuero-typicals retweet this one-time hilarious joke. But here’s the thing – someone’s constant anxiety and crushing depression isn’t funny. And the sad truth is, that the people who do relate to these memes can’t escape their reality by pressing the home button and closing Twitter.
I understand that mental illness is something many teens deal with, but the blatant trivialization of mental illness through it’s presentation as another Twitter joke completely undermines the struggles of those who do suffer from mental illness. How can we allow ourselves to belittle the very conditions that plague the well being of our generation, yet simultaneously growing out of mindset that repressed us into mental health in the first place? Mental health deserves a continual conversation and to start being recognized as important as any other social identifier – but even on a more personal level; because as the stigma of mental health issues already oppresses those who suffer from mental illness, they are already trapped within their own state of oppression.
