Whether it be a close friend or a family member or just something overheard from a stranger, we’ve all heard phrases like “I get so OCD about cleaning my room” and “this test gives me such anxiety” thrown around in conversation. It’s one thing if you actually suffer from a mental disorder and are describing its impact on you, but it is completely something else if you just borrow the term to use in a casual conversation amongst peers. This trend of glamorizing mental illness has only increased in popularity in the last few years and is also seen on various social media platforms such as Twitter or Tumblr. But what seems like a harmless saying can lead to some indirect and yet very serious problems for millions of people who actually experience some form of mental illness.
Here’s why.
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Just as we each develop our own unique identities in this world, everyone who has a mental disorder is also unique. No two people with depression are identical, nor are two people who suffer from an eating disorder. Diagnoses are often just a blanket term used to explain a wide range of symptoms. Just as we are all individuals, we all experience mental illness in different ways. Romanticizing a disorder creates a false notion that mental illness should always fit into these predictable and narrow stereotypes that coincide with popular culture. And that just isn’t reality.
Additionally, transforming a mental illness into something used in commonplace phrases discredits the suffering of millions of people out there with mental illness. By equating these psychological diagnoses with temporary phases or states we are often not aware that these disorders can have a tangible and very much permanent impact on a person’s life. The vast majority of mental disorders are not a phenomenon we can magically feel one day and drop it the next day as if it never happened. To people out there with actual mental disorders, often times every single day is a struggle for them to lead a normal life.
Your words, even if meant for a casual purpose, could even bring about an episode in someone who may have overheard the conversation. Depending on the context, this could change the course of someone’s day, or even their life.
Moreover, the growing usage of mental illness terms to describe everyday states of being may make people who have a real problem want to amplify their disorder in order to “fit in” with our hyper-glamorized society, to the point where it can consume one’s entire identity. In the process, these people may forget that their disorder does not completely define who they are or all that they can amount to. We are all people with fresh thoughts and perspectives and talents and aspirations to bring to this world. Why do we think it’s OK to open up the possibility of becoming unhealthily attached to a mental illness just because it may be a trendy topic at the moment?
This trend doesn’t only affect those with mental illness. It can be just as consequential to those who do not hold a diagnosis as well. It creates a toxic cycle of desire and then entrapment. Because these disorders are becoming glamorized, healthy individuals may start to feel “left out” if they do not have something wrong with them. Mental illness can happen to anyone, at any time, and once an illness develops it is often irreversible. Now, just because someone wanted to “fit in,” they could be left with a very real and possibly even debilitating problem.
The romanticism of mental illness needs to end now before it manifests into an even bigger problem in today’s society. It’s 2017; we can no longer go around thinking that our words will not have an impact. How we talk and act not only has an effect on others around us, but also on ourselves.
