It has been a recent trend in the media and society for individuals to diagnose themselves with mental illnesses because of the “tragically beautiful” trend going on. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a mental illness, it just requires some coping mechanisms and medication at times. However, it should not be something that someone wants to have seem unique and individualized. It should not be seen as a benefit for you. You should not want one. Mental illnesses are crippling and excruciating at times. Now before you get defensive, I am no way invalidating your status if you do have one. But if you are going along with this trend and simply acting out these conditions, this is a wake-up call.
Mental illness is something that interferes with your daily life and is a constant struggle of back and forth, progress and recession. Some moments you are fine, some moments you are awful, and some days are normal and some days are unbearable. In the media, it is displayed as the girl crying quietly to herself with small slashes on her wrists with the caption “tragic, yet beautiful.” It is seen in movies as that boy who is just extremely quiet and keeps to himself all the time. Depression is a persistent feeling of sadness in the individual affected. This sadness persists over a great deal of time, where the individual loses interest in the things they used to love. Their appetite and sleep schedule are at extremes in the darkest parts of the cloud. The person will often think that no one wants them around, and will lock themselves away for days or weeks at a time. At extremes, it is a person slowly dying because they do not have the energy to move or will to take care of themselves, or the person may even go to the extremes to end their own life because they are so hopeless of any possibility of the sadness going away. Is this still beautiful?
Another disorder that has been displayed incorrectly by the media is anxiety. It is pictured as a cute, wallflower girl who sits in the corner and avoids eye contact or the boy who is too nervous to ask his crush on a date. This is so far from the truth. Anxiety is emotionally and life consuming. It prevents people from doing everyday things that should not typically be an issue. It is having full blown panic attacks while they sit on the couch with your family watching a funny movie. It’s constantly reaching a stress level that is way out of proportion and knowing it's irrational but not being able to calm their body down. Anxiety is cold sweats, shaking, irregular breathing, high heart rate and in a state of complete panic in the attacks. Not as glorious it may have been thought, huh?
The worst of it all, is the media glorifying severe eating disorders. Along with the whole "pro-ana" trend going around, the media depicts eating disorders as a gorgeous girl, leaning over the toilet sighing or a dainty girl at the dinner table pushing her plate away. Eating disorders are extremely serious and critical conditions. They are not just skipping a meal every once in awhile and exercising a lot. They are fatal and life consuming. They are body dysmorphia. They are deprivation and sometimes death. Anorexia is hair falling out in clumps, lying to your loved ones, organ failure, frail bones, constant fainting, hair growing on your skin to keep the little body heat you have because there's not fat there anymore. Bulimia is a damaged throat, mascara running down their face, uncontrollable binges, throwing up blood, shame, guilt, and self-hatred. Not such pretty images, right?
Society has to stop the term “tragically beautiful” when speaking of these conditions or any mental condition. There’s nothing beautiful about them. They are grief. They are intrusive thoughts. They are consuming. They’re hell for the individual affected to live with, yet some people want these disorder because of the appeal given from the media. The people struggling with these are strong and beautiful people but these conditions themselves are crippling and uncontrollable. "Tragically beautiful" is unrealistic, and avoiding the real and ugly truth.
