Today’s Mental Health Discourse Is Harmful
The world seems to think of mental health in a new way.
Psychology has gained a new status. Suddenly, it is a popular thing to study the field of the mind. Suddenly, it is popular to attend therapy once a week.
And suddenly, it is popular to be mentally ill.
I have had mental illness for eighteen years.
I have attended therapy since the age of ten. I have studied psychology since high school. I have an unlimited resource of knowledge and experience that most people cannot tap into. I know what I’m talking about when I reference mental illness.
Most people, however, do not.
Most people have not experienced a mental illness in their lives.
Most people know the symptoms, but not the qualifications, of having a mental illness or challenge.
Most people read about mental illness but do not experience it nor study it. Instead, they internalize it and look for ways to relate to the material without seeking to understand the context of the words being shared.
Mental illness has become a trend instead of a serious issue.
People often refer to their own struggles using well-known labels: “My social anxiety. My depression. My PTSD.”
The attention geared towards psychology and therapy has become so widespread that the discourse around mental health has become almost commonplace. It is a topic more visited and respected than ever before.
It is good that we are talking about these things now. But we should be mindful of who we are giving voice to.
Mental health discussions should empower unempowered individuals. It should serve people who are struggling every day, either with or without a clear diagnosis. The loudest people in the crowd should never be those that have the least experience with these struggles.
Sadly, this rise of mental health talk has had some of the most harmful consequences I have seen to mental health.
People self-diagnose more than ever.
They think they have OCD because they wash their hands often.
They think they have anxiety because they are stressed about their exams.
They think they have depression because they are going through a break-up.
They are so desperate to give their struggles a name that they take these complicated, multi-faceted concepts out of their correct context to fit into their own lives.
Now, don’t get me wrong. These are all extremely valid concerns.
No one’s issue is “worse” than another’s. Not even in terms of mental health.
But you don’t need to attach some shiny label to your issues for them to have value.
You can be deeply, disturbingly sad without having depression. You can be very stressed and awkward without having social anxiety. You can be structured and perfectionistic without having OCD.
When you eliminate the context of how mental illness actually works, the severity of any of these issues is overshadowed.
Then, mental illness becomes something everyday and common, instead of a serious matter of health.
Then, harmful issues are reduced into mere running gags and buzzwords.
Then, mental health problems become something people can relate to instead of something that makes the lives of some of us almost unbearable.
There is no way around this. Diagnosis is a procedure, and one the average person cannot take.
You need to consult a therapist to get a diagnosis. The therapist needs to look at your emotional, cognitive, and behavioral tendencies, often through questionnaires and thorough conversations. They need to evaluate these findings in the context of your life and culture.
How much it impairs your functioning. How much it impacts your personal and interpersonal life. Really, how much it ruins your way of living.
Only then can you know. Only then can you attach that label to your collar.
Believe me, I’ve been there.
People thought I had anorexia. Turns out I had peculiar eating habits.
I myself thought I had social anxiety or some personality disorder. Turns out it was autism.
Sometimes there’s something, and other times, there’s not much. But there’s never nothing, because you don’t need a mental illness to validate your challenges and health issues. You don’t need to be ill to be struggling.
This is why it is so important to be conscious of how you speak about these subject matters.
Because whereas people without mental illness stand to gain from this new cultural discourse, people with mental illness only stand to lose.
They will be taken less seriously. They will be kept from receiving the help they need to function in life. Their pain and struggles will be reduced to one-sentence gags.
So please, speak with intention. Know who you are hurting and who you are serving.
Yes, it is good that therapy is more accessible than ever.
It is good that people are taking the time to learn about their own mental health.
It is good that more people are talking about the ways they hurt and harm.
But we must talk about it the right way, or the progress we have made so far gets undone.
