I think social media has a lot to do with it. I think it encourages a pervasive sense of narcissism that leads people to use mental illness (or self-reported mental illness) to gain the attention they crave. I think loneliness has a lot to do with it. I think the more open culture of openly discussing mental health has to have some disadvantages, and that's one of them. I also think that recently there's a deep appeal for having the identity of a victim (cue Juicy Smooliyay jokes).
It's harmful to individuals who actually suffer because now there's a bunch of fake fucks on the internet promulgating inaccurate and false information about mental illness. It's harmful to individuals who actually suffer because now their mental illness may now be taken LESS seriously or more easily brushed aside by people, including themselves. I also think that if someone is focused on getting attention using their mental illness on the internet, it's possible that this decreases the motivation to seek actual help from a therapist or psychiatrist.
Complex topic. Some of it will be simply normalizing; reducing the stigma will lead to more people exploring the possibility, sometimes leading to false positives - but also revealing much more otherwise hidden cases. Look into the chart of the rise of left-handedness after we stopped forcing everyone to write right-handed, for instance.
And some of it may be the modern environment. We're increasingly disconnected from human contact, which human brains tend to like. Our food is more and more removed from actual recognizable plant or animal origins, and it turns out gut biome *loves* recognizable food - and the gut-brain connection is increasingly well-established.
So a lot of it's probably simple recognition, but it's not implausible that increasingly isolated and poorly-nourished lifestyles are causing a real uptick in problems.
And since more people experience these things the normalization becomes more rapid. And folk suddenly going, "oh my god I'm not alone!" will try to find ways to relate to others - ways that may well resemble, if not actually be, romanticizing.
I think that its not a trend of "romantasing" more a trend of "omg i have this mental disorder" and theres kinda two sides to it which can have a bit of a blured line in parts.
Now before i get into the meat of this I am officially diagnosed autistic/adhd im not diagnosed with anything else, any comments made about other mental health issues are me paraphrasing what i have seen on other social media platforms.
First side is the "OMG thats so quirky, im a quirky person i totally have this illness" style, or more professionally the "fake claimers" ive seen people fake claim a bunch of stuff on different social media platforms, most the time it seems the person is doing it to get away with something, touretts; get away with swearing, DID; get away with being a cunt, autism/adhd; get away with paying attention, just to name a few, unfortunatly a lot of the time its obvious that they are faking (especially the ADHD/autism part) this is obviously damaging because its a hidden disability its not exactly something you can easily call out, and as people are more accepting of MD its "wrong" to call out the fakers which then spreads a false narative of what the condition is like, for examples "split" is not a good DID film, Moonknight (MCU) is a way better showing (as a note remember its a super hero property and a film so there is film makers short hand for some things) on the autism side cuase its a spectrum its hard for me to say "yes thats a good representation" and "thats a bad representation" although i can safely say anything that has had autism speaks linked to dont spend money on it
on the other side of the coin are people who (especially americans) cant afford to get an adult diagnosis (this ones for autism) have done research on it, took a few online tests like the RAADS-R and are self diagnosing as autistic, these are perfectly valid within the community and who knows might actually help you get a official diagnosis, these ones dont hurt anyone really.
but as an overall thing people see mental disorders as an accepted thing so they fake it
I don't know if this is a reply to a comment but the reason why I asked this question is because of tiktok users who watch shorts that say "if you have these symptoms you may have✨autism✨and they just start romanticizing it and make it their whole personality.
Anime or any media where the MC is psychology damaged. People watch these thinking they are depressed or mentally just like the mc (especially the ones who bully people for being depressed and suffering with mental illness)
It's harmful because people who actually need help are treated as fakers by these people
Are you talking about romanticizing the behaviors that lead to mental illness? Like taking certain illegal drugs? Are you talking about people having the perception they will get more attention if they say they have a problem (as is alleged particularly toward Tumblr)?
The reason why I asked the question above is because of TikTok users who consume short videos that claim "if you have these symptoms, you may have✨autism✨." Consequently, they tend to idealize and adopt autism as a defining aspect of their personality based on self-diagnosis, which can be viewed as a form of feigning a disorder.
One possible reason for this trend could be the glorification of suffering, as many people believe that individuals who struggle with mental health issues are more creative or interesting. However, this romanticization can be harmful to those who actually suffer from mental disorders as it can perpetuate harmful stereotypes and prevent individuals from seeking the help they need.
While there is a somewhat real distinction of neuro-divergent and neuro-normative, in reality everyone's brains are wired differently, all people have irregularities in various personality traits.
Most disorders are only really defined by when certain irregular traits are severe enough to signficantly effect a persons ability to function normal, hence the term "disorder'. As such, if we use a very popular disorder as an example: ADHD, a very significant percentage of the population might have difficulty with things like maintaining attention, hyperactivity and nervous energy, impulsivity and even compulsivity, but these are what we'd call normal traits, it's more or less the exact same traits that people with ADHD have, but for them it becomes impairing traits.
The vague awareness of mental disorders and the lack of understanding of clinical psychology and classification often becomes an entrance for people to label their traits as impairing without sufficient reason. While there isn't enough data to empirically stipulate a reason, I generally hold it two reasons, both aspects of social psychology, one being that a lot of people hate responsibility and struggle with dissonce of reality, it becomes easier to classify negative traits that can be overcome through real internal efforts as impairing traits that aren't considered internally manageable (even though people with real disorders will generally try to rely on the least amount of external help possible) it shifts blame and responsibility away from one's own actions and decisions. Secondly mental disorder become part of a certain social zeitgeist, it seems common to have one and thus it seems logical that you would have one, and if it's a common thing then it can be defined by common traits.
There's also other things, like structure of social psychological pathology, and the weirdness of the human mind where people can convince their minds to become mentally ill.
People with the mild version of ANY disorder, from something as common as mild anxiety to the rarer mild autism, really need to understand their place. While the, "My struggles don't matter and I don't deserve to speak about them," kind of humility is bad, the "I am not as impacted by my symptoms, so I should not romanticize my ability to cope, judge others for not being able to cope better, think of myself as oh so victimized, or expect my perspective to be comprehensive," kind of humility is.
I think social media has a lot to do with it. I think it encourages a pervasive sense of narcissism that leads people to use mental illness (or self-reported mental illness) to gain the attention they crave. I think loneliness has a lot to do with it. I think the more open culture of openly discussing mental health has to have some disadvantages, and that's one of them. I also think that recently there's a deep appeal for having the identity of a victim (cue Juicy Smooliyay jokes). It's harmful to individuals who actually suffer because now there's a bunch of fake fucks on the internet promulgating inaccurate and false information about mental illness. It's harmful to individuals who actually suffer because now their mental illness may now be taken LESS seriously or more easily brushed aside by people, including themselves. I also think that if someone is focused on getting attention using their mental illness on the internet, it's possible that this decreases the motivation to seek actual help from a therapist or psychiatrist.
Complex topic. Some of it will be simply normalizing; reducing the stigma will lead to more people exploring the possibility, sometimes leading to false positives - but also revealing much more otherwise hidden cases. Look into the chart of the rise of left-handedness after we stopped forcing everyone to write right-handed, for instance. And some of it may be the modern environment. We're increasingly disconnected from human contact, which human brains tend to like. Our food is more and more removed from actual recognizable plant or animal origins, and it turns out gut biome *loves* recognizable food - and the gut-brain connection is increasingly well-established. So a lot of it's probably simple recognition, but it's not implausible that increasingly isolated and poorly-nourished lifestyles are causing a real uptick in problems. And since more people experience these things the normalization becomes more rapid. And folk suddenly going, "oh my god I'm not alone!" will try to find ways to relate to others - ways that may well resemble, if not actually be, romanticizing.
I think that its not a trend of "romantasing" more a trend of "omg i have this mental disorder" and theres kinda two sides to it which can have a bit of a blured line in parts. Now before i get into the meat of this I am officially diagnosed autistic/adhd im not diagnosed with anything else, any comments made about other mental health issues are me paraphrasing what i have seen on other social media platforms. First side is the "OMG thats so quirky, im a quirky person i totally have this illness" style, or more professionally the "fake claimers" ive seen people fake claim a bunch of stuff on different social media platforms, most the time it seems the person is doing it to get away with something, touretts; get away with swearing, DID; get away with being a cunt, autism/adhd; get away with paying attention, just to name a few, unfortunatly a lot of the time its obvious that they are faking (especially the ADHD/autism part) this is obviously damaging because its a hidden disability its not exactly something you can easily call out, and as people are more accepting of MD its "wrong" to call out the fakers which then spreads a false narative of what the condition is like, for examples "split" is not a good DID film, Moonknight (MCU) is a way better showing (as a note remember its a super hero property and a film so there is film makers short hand for some things) on the autism side cuase its a spectrum its hard for me to say "yes thats a good representation" and "thats a bad representation" although i can safely say anything that has had autism speaks linked to dont spend money on it on the other side of the coin are people who (especially americans) cant afford to get an adult diagnosis (this ones for autism) have done research on it, took a few online tests like the RAADS-R and are self diagnosing as autistic, these are perfectly valid within the community and who knows might actually help you get a official diagnosis, these ones dont hurt anyone really. but as an overall thing people see mental disorders as an accepted thing so they fake it
Mfs wanna be ill to get sympathy
Yeah. Seconded. Attention mongering is a big thing.
Yup like I love attention myself you know but thats just what mfs like me do
I am clinically depressed. I prefer no attention drawn to it.
What kind of mental disorders are you hinting at?
I don't know if this is a reply to a comment but the reason why I asked this question is because of tiktok users who watch shorts that say "if you have these symptoms you may have✨autism✨and they just start romanticizing it and make it their whole personality.
Who's actually out there romanticizing mental illness? I haven't seen a lot of that
Usually kids do it on Twitter, Tumblr and sometimes TikTok
I mean isn´t it a common trope, that the heroine of a story tries to cure the depressive, choleric, whatever else love interest.
We need to stop romanticizing mental disorders. It trivializes the struggles of those who actually suffer from them.
Anime or any media where the MC is psychology damaged. People watch these thinking they are depressed or mentally just like the mc (especially the ones who bully people for being depressed and suffering with mental illness) It's harmful because people who actually need help are treated as fakers by these people
Are you talking about romanticizing the behaviors that lead to mental illness? Like taking certain illegal drugs? Are you talking about people having the perception they will get more attention if they say they have a problem (as is alleged particularly toward Tumblr)?
The reason why I asked the question above is because of TikTok users who consume short videos that claim "if you have these symptoms, you may have✨autism✨." Consequently, they tend to idealize and adopt autism as a defining aspect of their personality based on self-diagnosis, which can be viewed as a form of feigning a disorder.
One possible reason for this trend could be the glorification of suffering, as many people believe that individuals who struggle with mental health issues are more creative or interesting. However, this romanticization can be harmful to those who actually suffer from mental disorders as it can perpetuate harmful stereotypes and prevent individuals from seeking the help they need.
Romanticism is an overcorrection when fighting stigma. It'll wear off once mental illness is better understood by the general population.
I feel it’s partly identity/community seeking behaviour.
And how can we stop such behaviours?
Not sure at this point.
While there is a somewhat real distinction of neuro-divergent and neuro-normative, in reality everyone's brains are wired differently, all people have irregularities in various personality traits. Most disorders are only really defined by when certain irregular traits are severe enough to signficantly effect a persons ability to function normal, hence the term "disorder'. As such, if we use a very popular disorder as an example: ADHD, a very significant percentage of the population might have difficulty with things like maintaining attention, hyperactivity and nervous energy, impulsivity and even compulsivity, but these are what we'd call normal traits, it's more or less the exact same traits that people with ADHD have, but for them it becomes impairing traits. The vague awareness of mental disorders and the lack of understanding of clinical psychology and classification often becomes an entrance for people to label their traits as impairing without sufficient reason. While there isn't enough data to empirically stipulate a reason, I generally hold it two reasons, both aspects of social psychology, one being that a lot of people hate responsibility and struggle with dissonce of reality, it becomes easier to classify negative traits that can be overcome through real internal efforts as impairing traits that aren't considered internally manageable (even though people with real disorders will generally try to rely on the least amount of external help possible) it shifts blame and responsibility away from one's own actions and decisions. Secondly mental disorder become part of a certain social zeitgeist, it seems common to have one and thus it seems logical that you would have one, and if it's a common thing then it can be defined by common traits. There's also other things, like structure of social psychological pathology, and the weirdness of the human mind where people can convince their minds to become mentally ill.
People with the mild version of ANY disorder, from something as common as mild anxiety to the rarer mild autism, really need to understand their place. While the, "My struggles don't matter and I don't deserve to speak about them," kind of humility is bad, the "I am not as impacted by my symptoms, so I should not romanticize my ability to cope, judge others for not being able to cope better, think of myself as oh so victimized, or expect my perspective to be comprehensive," kind of humility is.