The Romantacization of Mental Illness and Victim Culture

[ApexSeraphim]

THIS. THANK YOU.

I have been saying this for ages since high school where they would do assembly presentations on "mental wellbeing", and I would always dismiss it as this.

More often than not modern mental illness is due to society making people so hyperfocused on abstract ideas and goals whilst making them devolve into obsessive and egotistic individualism that they end up in a constant state of distress and discomfort. And as you say, social media just propagates and propagates these ideas over and over until people start believing it because it's quirky and funny and relatable and people with high social status online say it.

It genuinely annoys me because I know people who are like this, and I know people who are genuinely mentally ill and they are never that quirky or ignorant. They have genuine issues that get negated because ✨Emily✨ (she/her) wants to feel special and included by saying she is OCD/bipolar/whatever, whilst John over here suffers from emotional dysfunction and OCD/bipolar/whatever from a childhood of being beat and bullied which leads to him wanting control over his own life and keep a routine that gives him some kind of agency over himself.

It really grinds my gears lol

the fact that i relate to this so much honestly scares me

 

[sinaptica]

Yeah, I have no doubt it goes back that far. Maybe even further. I agree, there's definitely more at play than just the mental health stuff, and while I'm thankful I never had to experience war, starvation, etc up close and personal, I know the sense you're talking about where deep down we know things are not quite right. Some are conscious of it, some it's more subconscious. I felt it even more amplified when I went to the US years ago (I live in Canada). It's hard to explain without sounding like a lunatic, but I remember thinking things felt really fake there. Not sure how to better describe it. But it feels like so much of western society is meant to weaken our minds and crush our human spirits. Maybe not the same way war and starvation does in other countries but, it's everything from the chemicals in the food we eat, the chemicals in the water we drink, the chemicals in the air we breathe, the way the education system is designed, and all to become a wage slave working two jobs just to barely get by (even worse now with skyrocketing inflation - Canada is becoming a nightmare in that sense). What I paid for rent in a nice one bedroom apartment 10 years is how much people pay for a single room in a shared apartment today living with roommates. But over the course of the last 4-5 years everything seems like it's really spiraling at an accelerated pace. Even the division tactics are noticeable that they're division tactics. Battle of the sexes, battle of the races, Isreal vs Palestine, Ukraine vs Russia, everybody pick a side pick a side, left vs. right, the list goes on. Once you see it you can't unsee it. Once you start hearing certain phrases purposely played on repetition and can pick it out, the illusion shatters: 'new normal', 'in these unprecedented times', etc. You start noticing radio stations, TV, social media outlets harping the exact same key phrases everywhere over and over at the same time, it's truly a wonder that in itself doesn't strike as odd to everyone. Once you see it and realize what's happening, you can't unsee it. I'm sure I sound schizo right along with you lol. But sometimes I hope asking questions about these things gets folks to really think about it and come to their own conclusions and realizations. Asking questions helps I think.

Getting back on the topic though of romanticizing the deterioration of mental health, where do you see this particular aspect taking society in the next 5-10 years?

I understand your feeling, this perception of things being fake and dreamy has been creeping into my experience for many years now.

From time to time I used to ask myself: Am I the one going crazy?, but, after pondering about it and lots of introspection I honestly think it's not me. I've always been very careful and observant of the kind of things I let into my life. People, ideas, behaviors, I think I've done a good job at guarding my inner core, maintaining it somewhat pure... although I'm not unscathed, I'm not the one that has been completely rearranged by the winds of change. I know many who were.

I don't want to get too deep into politics because I sincerely think it does not matter that much: What we are going through is not specific to any given political system. Neither, I do want to get too deep into economy, or I'll fill several pages with off topic. In synthesis what I know about economic principles tells me almost any ideology is structured ignorance which serves as encouragement to turn our backs to reality itself. At least, to a big chunk of reality.

And precisely this is the problem.

The immense majority of individuals has the need to feel part, to be validated by one or more groups.

There's nothing inherently bad about this. We need each other to survive and the life of a lone wolf is not for everyone, it's hard as nails, and even the lone wolf goes back to check the pack from time to time.

The problem arises when you inject politics into every fucking aspect of human existence, and these groups lose contact with reality in very diverse ways.

The reason I mentioned hunger, disease, and death is because those things are unaffected by opinions and thoughts. A pear tree will give a limited number of fruits per unit of time no matter your wishes are.

I don't want to discourage you from asking questions to others, of helping others, but I'm more pessimistic than you in this aspect. Maybe you'll have more success than I did.

As for your last question, I'm afraid to say I think we are going to have enough serious issues coming for us during the next decade to either make these people snap out of it and take a hold of themselves (this is what I would wish for) or to make them go even further down the spiral (this is what I believe will happen to most of them).

First noticed this on Tumblr in like 2013... it's spread far and wide since.

I think you're right... it's the new subculture(s).

It was death cult tier.
The trend hit hard enough to motivate academic interest.

I blame individualism.
Social media is one of those places where everyone leeches onto everything.
There are people who really like to attach the word Neet or -cel to them for whatever reason yet are some normal person who still goes to school

How can we blame individualism when these people are fundamentally trying to escape from themselves ?

Sounds like what a guy I met on a plane once told me

View attachment 97094

I was not the guy. I do not socialize in planes, a lot can go wrong and it's best to avoid violence in tight spaces.

 

[Kodai_09]

honestly if someone is pretending to have a mental illness for attention then they probably do have some issues to be resolved with lacking a sense of belonging and an extremely weak identity which itself would be a signal that someone does have issues relating to others or maybe they just want internet money

 

[4d1]

I was not the guy.

uh oh... it's over for me bros...

(hint: the image is a joke reference)

 

[microbyte]

The reason so many people "have" mental illnesses right now is because humans rationalize their feelings. As per the rat utopia experiment, as society gets more crowded, which it is online (we humans see online similar to the real world, as we haven't yet acclimated mentally to this extra crowded whole other world), then people start feeling nihilistic and depressed, and try to shunt themselves away from the majority. This is then done by people pretending to have mental illnesses. But that's cool, so now people hop on it, believing that they're still being shunted bc the slop that mental influencers give them. It's a short circuiting of our brain and how we handle people.

 

[Venomnik0]

This reminds of how mental illnesses are now commodified and easily available these days. Back then, if you even had some sort of semblance of a mental illness, you were shunned, ostracized and frequently told to suppress or hide it. Nowadays, every other girl is a "bpd queen" or "autistic femcel" and those are frequently sexualized and promoted across the web as an "attractive" thing. There is no in between when it comes to this shit. You either horny for some bpd pussy or horny for some woman who doesn't even know how to clean herself. The truth is, can we just love people for who they are rather than sexualize these hyper specfic and unneccessary details.

 

[Venomnik0]

we humans see online similar to the real world, as we haven't yet acclimated mentally to this extra crowded whole other world

I wonder what happens when the web inevitably decentralize. Will masses of people flock to alternative sites and decentralize natrually or will they go back to the real world where they belong?

 

[GENOSAD]

I know people who are like this, and I know people who are genuinely mentally ill and they are never that quirky or ignorant.

The worst comes around when this attitude rubs off on people who are actually mentally ill. I see this a lot in mental health awareness circles, which is exactly why I try to avoid them: People will talk about their illness, talk about their diagnoses, and then completely ignore mental health treatment and wear it on their sleeve like it makes them more "interesting."
Buddy, as someone who deals with people who don't have mental illnesses on a daily basis, I can tell you that nobody is "endeared" to you because of your affliction. Nobody likes hearing about your mental health struggles except for the people who are already romanticizing them in the first place. Even when they say "hey, you can open up to me about your mental health issues, I'm here if you want to talk," they soon realize that your shit is too much for them to deal with once you actually open up, and they stop talking to you.

Maybe that paradigm is why these mental health circles end up being so circle-jerkish. Because nobody is able to help them, they give up on helping themselves and instead end up bleeding on each other while saying "no, no, it's fine, it's just my quirky little self, haha!" And it feeds back into the whole downplaying of mental illness.

 

[Venomnik0]

"hey, you can open up to me about your mental health issues, I'm here if you want to talk," they soon realize that your shit is too much for them to deal with once you actually open up, and they stop talking to you.

"I can fix her"

 

[StoicCabal]

I think a lot of it stems from our recent shift into a culture of mass pathology has led to tons of Munchausen cases where kids and the more lonely, to pathologize "quirky" personality traits and embrace/celebrate it in order to make themselves standout and be unique individuals.

And our medical institutions are encouraging this toxic behavior wholeheartedly.

 

[Obake]

the last 4-5 years or so

It's not that recent. When I was in high school there were lots of kids who pretended to have various things, but it certainly wasn't as common as it is today. This shits been happening for a while (I graduated 10 years ago), it's just that now it's becoming even more trendy.

Pay attention to what kinds of people do this. Their hair color, fashion choices, personality type, political beliefs. Notice any trends? That should tell you everything you need to know about both this topic and everything political.

 

[microbyte]

I wonder what happens when the web inevitably decentralize. Will masses of people flock to alternative sites and decentralize natrually or will they go back to the real world where they belong?

Until people return to the real world, or we go back to a really slow, and therefor depopulated and smaller, isolated, internet, then the problems will continue. If the internet "decentralizes" (with billions of people what does that even mean), then it'll still be a hop skip and a jump to where you can get your brain overloaded by reams of content and people, enough to short circuit it. Also, I would just like to highly recommend reading the aforementioned rat utopia paper. It completely changed how I see a lot of things, while also being a sort of "no shit sherlock" paper to the "modern" reader.

 

[desudapsone]

A lot of this started with Tumblr back in its heyday, and if anything, the migration from Tumblr to Twitter after the porn ban only made things worse. I'd argue if that sort of culture was outright shunned from the site to begin with, we wouldn't be in this situation. Sure, the users who fake mental illnesses would have gone elsewhere, but more than likely it would have been a smaller site and they would have stayed there. There's a lot of blame to go around for this trend catching on with today's youth, but ground zero was Tumblr.

It's important to take mental health seriously, but the way people romanticize it and wear it as a special badge of honor makes it harder for people with actual issues to be heard. I've dealt with so many people who did shit like that, and while some may have had real trauma, their behavior got a pass from people who basically said "it's just their (insert mental affliction here)" which gave them the freedom to be a shitty person. It got to a point where I'm still having to rebuild my social life from the ground up because so many people I knew were just that crazy. I've struggled with a number of things that I won't list here for privacy's sake, and while I am seeing a therapist, part of the reason I never open up anymore is because of these types of people. I'm not religious, but I do hope the people that started all of this have a very special place in hell reserved for them.

 

[ApexSeraphim]

I think a lot of it stems from our recent shift into a culture of mass pathology has led to tons of Munchausen cases where kids and the more lonely, to pathologize "quirky" personality traits and embrace/celebrate it in order to make themselves standout and be unique individuals.

And our medical institutions are encouraging this toxic behavior wholeheartedly.

how can they standout and be unique when they do the exact same shit as everyone else? if they want to be unique and quirky why do what everyone else is doing by self diagnosing and shit

 

[Haus444]

While it's extremely popular now, from what I can tell, this started gaining great popularity in the 19th century. This painting is often pointed to as a turning point in the "Romantic Era." Trying to find aesthetic beauty in grotesque, seemingly insignifigant action. It depicts a failed poet, Thomas Chatterton, committing suicide, and it was based on true events. I think this type of art is the seedling, or at least a progenitor, to this kind of attitude we see today.

I think on a psychological level, it's simply easier to act as if you were the victim to the ills of the world, and that by being a failure you're not actually a fool, but a wise person who is just too concious of how depraved reality is. It's a roundabout way of throwing away responsibility for your own actions and disposition, while still glorifying yourself. You're not a lazy guy who can't do his laundry, you're a "tortured poet" or whatever.

 

[Venomnik0]

with billions of people what does that even mean

I didn't really think to hard about it when it comes to what I envisioned. There will always be major spaces but it'd be pretty similar to now tbh considering how much "twitter-isms" spread.

Also, I won't claim to read the rat utopia experiment but I did watch the video summarizing the experiment. It mostly applies alot to what we're going through as a society. A painful reflection in some regards.

 

[Obake]

how can they standout and be unique when they do the exact same shit as everyone else? if they want to be unique and quirky why do what everyone else is doing by self diagnosing and shit

For the same reason that people get info foreign media and think that one of the most popular directors from another country is a hidden gem.

They're the only one in their circle doing it do they think it's unique. They don't actually have original thoughts.

 

[StoicCabal]

how can they standout and be unique when they do the exact same shit as everyone else? if they want to be unique and quirky why do what everyone else is doing by self diagnosing and shit

Because they're kids most of the time, or people that failed to grow up in any meaningful way. (the funkopop collecting types that soy out over nintendo games)

 

[Cobalt]

I agree with a lot of the points mentioned already. I would add that I think it also has a lot to do with identity. If you live in a developed country there is no real sense of identity in anything anymore. Religion has been de-fanged and watered down so much that there is no real strong sense of identity from it. Being nationalistic or identifying with your country too much is generally seen as cringe and weird. The nuclear family (and to a lesser extent, extended family) structure as been slowly and systematically destroyed. I've noticed among older people they are much more likely to go out of their way do something for someone because "They are family." this is mostly absent in younger people. Family provided people with a much deeper sense of identity and belonging then it does now. As the developed world has transitioned away from being agricultural there is also much less identity stemming from the land you are on (eg the family farm).

Essentially what I'm getting at is that there is a distinct lack of identity from traditional identity sources these days. Having a mental illness is a pretty big source of identity. Like it or not, they are a fairly defining trait. Hence young people latch onto them, regardless of if they actually have one or not.

 

[ApexSeraphim]

I agree with a lot of the points mentioned already. I would add that I think it also has a lot to do with identity. If you live in a developed country there is no real sense of identity in anything anymore. Religion has been de-fanged and watered down so much that there is no real strong sense of identity from it. Being nationalistic or identifying with your country too much is generally seen as cringe and weird. The nuclear family (and to a lesser extent, extended family) structure as been slowly and systematically destroyed. I've noticed among older people they are much more likely to go out of their way do something for someone because "They are family." this is mostly absent in younger people. Family provided people with a much deeper sense of identity and belonging then it does now. As the developed world has transitioned away from being agricultural there is also much less identity stemming from the land you are on (eg the family farm).

Essentially what I'm getting at is that there is a distinct lack of identity from traditional identity sources these days. Having a mental illness is a pretty big source of identity. Like it or not, they are a fairly defining trait. Hence young people latch onto them, regardless of if they actually have one or not.

Ironically, i base most of my identity from traditional identity sources