Gerald Sastra/The Cougar
Over the past decade, conversations around mental health have evolved significantly, especially when it comes to Generation Z. Mental illness has become a major issue. normal subject talk aboutboth online and in real life.
In many ways, this is a positive change. Widespread discussion of mental health issues has led to greater awareness, making it easier to find community and seek help when needed. It is undeniable that the younger generations also have a much more important role positive outlook on mental health than their predecessors, which has been great in minimizing the stigma surrounding mental illness. Unfortunately, however, there are downsides to these discussions becoming normalized.
One of the major problems with this development is that it has undoubtedly led to an excessive use of “therapeutic discourse”. This type of language includes truly useful clinical terms such as triggering, trauma, neurodivergent and many others. When used correctly, these terms can be useful, but there has recently been an increase in the casual use of expressions like these. While it may seem harmless to some, the way many people use this language sometimes crosses the dangerous line between destigmatization and outright misuse.
Symptoms
One particular problem that has become somewhat common on social media lately is content which aims to raise awareness of the different symptoms of mental disorders. These types of videos are created in order to help people learn more about the disorders and potentially help them in the process of being. diagnostic. While this idea isn’t bad in itself, the symptoms listed tend to be quite vague. This glaring lack of detail has led many people, especially teenagers, to self-diagnose and decide they have certain disorders.
Now why is this bad? Although self-diagnosis is an excellent tool that can help make professional diagnoses, it is irresponsible to do so without proper research. A short video of symptoms with no real nuance is not a good way to learn about mental disorders, especially if the video comes from someone without any professional qualifications.
Conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, and obsessive-compulsive disorder can be extremely exhausting and make it difficult to function in life. The symptoms of these disorders aren’t as simple as being forgetful, fidgeting frequently, or being particularly neat, and reducing them to something that simple doesn’t help anyone.
Abuse Disorders
Another problem with these types of clinical terms is how casually some people use them. For example, many people use OCD to describe themselves or other people without really thinking about it. While it’s certainly not a new phenomenon, the tendency to say things like “I’m so OCD” or “You’re so ADHD” can be detrimental to people with these disorders, not to mention the fact that this type of Language is often rooted in stereotypes. .
Equating common traits like neatness or forgetfulness with a potentially debilitating mental health problem is harmful because it perpetuates stereotypes about people with mental illness, and it can also be alienating for people with these disorders. In some severe cases, it can even cause people with these symptoms to not want to seek help for fear of being ostracized.
Another increasingly common problem, especially in online spaces, is the overuse of words like “triggered.” In the context of mental health, a trigger is an event or experience that, when mentioned to someone struggling with a mental illness, can potentially lead to a worsening of their emotional state or symptoms. It is commonly used for people who have experienced trauma in the past.
In recent years, however, it has become a phrase used in the same way as terms like upset or uncomfortable, which is undeniably detrimental to those with real triggers. The theft and misuse of terms like these delegitimize people with very real histories of trauma.
Conclusion
It’s definitely empowering to find other people online who are willing to talk about mental health topics that you can relate to. It’s also easy to casually joke about terms you don’t fully understand. Talking about mental health in a respectful way can be difficult, and the importance of normalizing these topics cannot be underestimated.
However, the language surrounding these topics is also important. While it can be empowering to find others who relate to you, consider taking the time to truly think about how you discuss these topics. If we’re not careful, we risk eventually normalizing these terms to the point where they become completely meaningless, which will only hurt the people who need these discussions the most.
Parker Hodges-Beggs is a second-year journalism student who can be reached at (email protected)
