Logging onto any social media site, you will be bombarded with images that attempt to romanticize mental illnesses. Images, such as those below, appear to make mental illness and suicidal ideation to seem cute and trendy, when in reality it is a living hell. While 20 percent of US adults suffer from a mental illness each year, 4 percent of US adults experience it to such a degree that it impacts their life significantly. They cannot live their life “normally”, and there is nothing romantic about that.
However, due to the recent glorification of mental illness on social media sites and through the media, teens are begging to be diagnosed with some sort of mental illness as an attempt to fit in and be cool. A mental illness is not something that you want to “add to your grunge aesthetic” or to “fit in”.
These images that are circulated throughout the internet, are dangerous to individuals with and without a mental illness; if you do not have a mental illness you are almost encouraged to have one and taught the steps on how to do so and if you do have a mental illness, the struggles that you face are invalidated due to the glorification of them that is far from correct.
Take this image: it shows a girl who, once reaching a uber skinny weight, is happy, yet that is not how eating disorders work. You do not simply reach a “perfect weight” and feel content, because you never feel content. You want to be skinnier and thinner, regardless of how skinny and thin you have become. Yet, this image glorifies it as an attempt to reach your “goal weight”.
Furthermore, images that are pro-self harm, implant the idea that “hey, I’m sad, I should go cut myself” into teenagers minds, when it might not have ever occurred to them otherwise. Images that state that self-harm scars are “cute” or “trendy” further glorify it and encourage people that “hey, if you want to be cool and trendy, just go cut yourself!”
There is nothing beautiful about hating every inch of your body to the point where you intentionally damage it permanently.
There is nothing cute about having to try and hide the fact that you just threw up your last meal.
There is nothing trendy about having a mental illness.
There is nothing romantic about taking way too many pills, and hoping that you will not be around the next day to see the aftermath of your actions.
Mental illnesses are living hell. They can destroy you and tear you apart. They do not have to though, you can come out the other side and overcome the struggles that are put in front of you. However, to think that someone who does not have to face the struggles that come with a mental illness would want one or try to have one, is absurd.
