You’re scrolling through Facebook or Twitter and you see a post from some girl from high school complaining about how ‘depressed’ she is. Most people may be simply annoyed.
Others who may have struggled with depression or another mental illness may become infuriated. You want to say something along the lines of ‘keep your personal problems to yourself’ or ‘you have no idea what real depression looks like’. It's insulting and has the potential to enforce the stigmas that so many people have had to fight against.
People should be informed about the realities of mental illnesses, not be exposed to these flimsy shallow posts of someone posing as a person who’s had to fight for their mental stability.
If we looked at these posts through a lense of a different health issue, I’m sure there would be many more people advocating against it. Imagine someone faking a cancer diagnosis for the sake of gaining sympathy.
Society wouldn’t tolerate it.
So why do people seem to tolerate those using a false mental illness diagnosis to attract attention? How do we call out people that insult others struggling with mental health by exploiting their struggles as their own for personal gain?
I have an answer:
You don't.
Here’s the thing. I know how irritating and frustrating it can be to see someone posting dramatic statuses in the attempt to get attention. I know that most of the time these posts are a desperate cry for support and positive attention from people because that individual is too insecure about themselves to handle lack of attention. It’s insulting to those who do suffer from a mental illness and it discredits everyone who needs understanding and acceptance regarding their situation. However, assumptions can be dangerous especially when we make them off of the basis of a social media post.
Each individual struggling with a mental illness is entitled to handle it, however, the they want.
The choice to disclose to anyone can be impossible for some while others may choose to broadcast their situation to everyone. There are benefits and negatives of all ways to disclose or not to disclose, but one way might be better for someone depending on that individual's own personal situation. Some people may be encouraged to keep others updated on how they feel as a way to prevent a feeling of loneliness.
It’s because that each individual is entitled to maintain their mental health the way that best fits their needs that we should not be ‘calling out’ people we perceive as posers. There is no all-determining way to decide who is dealing with mental health issues even when we know them. A lot of times, it’s the last person you would have expected who is struggling with what everyone else sees. Even when we’re 100% sure, there’s always a chance that we’re wrong. If we do accuse someone of posing and we’re wrong, the consequences still severely outweigh the reward we could have had if we were right.
Having a mental illness is one of the most unbearable experiences someone can have in their life.
A lot of mental illnesses can be characterized by the individual becoming overly critical of themselves and holding delusional negative thoughts regarding how others perceive them. When others preach their baseless accusations against people struggling with mental health, it only reinforces the thoughts that they’ve been holding against themselves for so long. A single comment or voiced assumption can break down all of the work they’ve accomplished in their treatment plans such as cognitive behavior therapy, meditations, relaxation training, etc...
In the end, the best and only way to call out people potentially faking a mental illness for attention is to not say anything at all. All we should do is hope that those who really are exploiting mental illnesses for their own benefit someday realize the damage they are doing.
They know who they are.
To use such an incredibly painful and debilitating condition for the sake of getting people to comment on a post is a pathetic act of insensitivity and entitlement. I can’t imagine how anyone could exploit this for such a shallow self serving thing, but I can imagine that those who do such things will eventually experience their own consequences.
For now, we should just put our trust in karama that it will do its job.
