Hannah Davis
One of my favourite things about my generation is the pretty revolutionary way in which we talk about mental health – in that we talk about it at all. The comparative comfort of young people around issues that were once so vilified and stigmatised quite often seems to me like a little miracle.
“We are laying strong foundations for future generations of emotionally intelligent and educated people”
This kind of openness isn’t true of all of us, but that maybe isn’t the point anyway. Bringing these discussions into public forums – proudly, loudly, together – means that hopefully it’s that bit easier for everyone to speak candidly about how they feel. And as young people have young people of their own, children are able to grow up surrounded by comfortable conversations about topics that aren’t so tricky after all. We are laying strong foundations for future generations of emotionally intelligent and educated people, and this is beyond exciting.
The Dangers of Such Openness and Social Media
That isn’t to say there are some worrying aspects of this too. Pushing destigmatisation to its limits can lead to more of a harmful normalisation, where people’s parameters of what is healthy move dangerously far away from the truth.
Whilst it does so much good for people to see representation of a variety of experiences of mental illness, if every other video on your TikTok “For You” page is of someone in a psych ward (thank you to a person who knows who they are for this example – I love you), your perception of how many people are really in this situation gets massively skewed. We know that social media isn’t real life – but it is such a big part of our real lives, and we would be naive to underestimate its influence.
“Taking in the worst things that people have experienced … over and over again takes a considerable toll”
As wonderful as accessible discussions of mental health are, short-form content isn’t necessarily the best forum. Taking in the worst things that people have experienced in 15-second clips over and over again takes a considerable toll. Because of the format of so many social media sites, you don’t have time to opt-out of whatever is coming up next before it’s started playing, at which point this is often too late.
The Use and Misuse of Content Warnings
If set up as the first and only thing a viewer sees before engaging closely with the content, they act as a very effective barrier between potentially vulnerable people and sudden, upsetting material, but if they appear in small text alongside a video, or in the caption of a post, they don’t do much. Putting all-important “flash warnings” in a video that shows flashing lights from the very first second is all but pointless.
The Misuse of Language
“When they take this specialist language and use it as a joke … it so colossally undermines the very real implications”
And we have to be careful about how we use this newfound comfort and language. Take the word “triggering”, for example. Being able to identify something as such is extremely powerful, and often can be an important step in setting crucial boundaries with those around you. But misuse of this word by people who do not experience triggers is so invalidating. When they take this specialist language and use it as a joke, or simply as a synonym for “upsetting” or “annoying”, it so colossally undermines the very real implications for so many others.
“describing anything unpleasant as “traumatic” doesn’t remove a taboo”
It isn’t that you have to “earn” the use of these words, but disrespecting them can be devastating. This is the same with taking mental illnesses and using them to describe our behaviour. Describing organisation as being “so OCD”, describing feeling down as being depressed, and describing anything unpleasant as “traumatic” doesn’t remove a taboo. It only perpetuates it.
Handle With Care
The democratisation of this language and this knowledge is such an amazing, horizon-widening phenomenon. Using the information and communities available on social media, so many more people who would never have had access to professional support are able to help themselves and interact with others who are going through similar things.
“we have to work this through with care and empathy”
We have an incredible opportunity to engender more and more openness and progress – but we have to work this through with care and empathy. Otherwise, the very thing that could destigmatise these issues and validate those suffering with them only creates more division.
Featured image courtesy of Eve Davies.
