There's a thin line between normalization and fetishization of mental illness
It was a freezing day in early January and I was standing outside of my office in jeans and a blouse. Out of nowhere, my anxiety had spiked and I desperately needed fresh air. My heart was in my throat, I was having a hard time catching my breath and I couldn’t think about anything except trying to slow it all down. After doing a few grounding techniques, I finally calmed down enough to head back inside.
But also thanks to this movement, we’ve reached a point where mental illness has, in some ways, become a fad. The trivialization of issues like anxiety frustrates me—and it did long before I had an official diagnosis. From popular memes about dealing with depression and anxiety to the way we throw around terms like “OCD” and “bipolar” in everyday conversation, maybe it’s time we re-evaluate just how easy-breezy we are about mental illness.
Lol "having anxiety" is not another term for "feeling super nervous about something." Our generation is accustomed to diminishing real disorders for the sake of trendiness and it's not cool ok thank you and goodbyeOne friend said that she’s often told she’s just being “dramatic” when she says she’s having an anxiety attack.
Humour *can* help, but we still need to take illness seriously To be clear, my issue with these jokes is not that they’re making fun of mental illness. In fact, dark humour has been proven to help those who are suffering. For example, Maddie, 28, is someone who struggles with anxiety, depression, ADHD and OCD. These illnesses led to her taking a break from university, they have cost her jobs and generally make it difficult for her to even walk down the street.
The real-life impacts of fetishization In an essay on Medium, writer Matt Klein points out that, “when mental illness becomes fetishized, its significance becomes trivialized, and we regress to where we once started — not giving the topic the appropriate attention it deserves.” We need to take mental illness seriously so that those dealing with mental illness know that it’s OK to get help, and it’s OK to medicate.
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