“Like O.M.G. I am like so totally OCD!” “My boyfriend dumped me and now I’m depressed.” “I don’t want to do my homework, I’m so ADHD!!!!!” “I have Social Anxiety; I can’t speak in front of the class!” These quotes seem too ignorant to be true, but sadly enough, similar phrases are thrown around all the time. The appropriation of mental illnesses by mentally healthy people is rampant. It seems some people think mental illnesses are a fun thing they can joke about and others actually insist they have these disorders as a plea for attention. Recently, self-diagnoses of mental disorders have become trendy. You’re not special unless you’re depressed or severely anxious. There is clearly an issue here that needs to be addressed.
The notion of mental illness as a quirky personality trait is disturbing, not to mention insulting to people who are actually suffering from crippling psychological disorders. The peculiar thing is that everyone wants to claim to be depressed and bipolar, but won’t appropriate less trendy disorders like Autism and Depersonalization Disorder. Tumblr bloggers are notorious for listing self-ascribed mental illnesses in their descriptions along with information like their names and ages. People define themselves with the disorders they claim to have. Janet Street-Porter of the Dailymail refers to these phenomena as “The Misery Movement.” There are a few potential causes of this problematic trend, including the romanticizing of mental illness, over-diagnosis, and the overwhelming need for people to stand out from the crowd while also finding a niche social group they belong in.
The only illness these types of people are actually suffering from is what I refer to as manic-pixie-dream-girl syndrome, most likely brought on by excessively watching “500 Days of Summer.” Other causes may include over-active tumblr usage and the heavy romanticism of Sylvia Plath. People strive to stand out from the crowd, making themselves into special snowflakes, you know, no two are perfectly identical and all that jazz. Young girls are tricked into thinking mental illnesses will make them interesting and acting “crazy” is the best way to snatch a man. Who wants a mentally healthy plain-Jane anyway? Boys are also guilty of appropriating mental illnesses to themselves undoubtedly for the same reason as girls: attention. In fact, people of all genders, races, religious backgrounds, etc. are guilty of this. What they fail to understand is that mental illnesses are not going to make them any more interesting or better than anyone else in any way. They probably encounter people on a fairly regular basis who are actually struggling with mental illness and they would never know, because most people don’t like to talk about their disorders. In fact, a good clue that someone is faking mental illness is that they talk about it incessantly. Of course it’s 100% okay for people with mental illnesses to discuss them publicly, but discussing and bragging are two totally different things.
The constant influx of ignorant people claiming they suffer from depression or OCD illegitimatizes mental illnesses, which creates a grave problem for people who really have them. With mental illness comes a certain social stigma. This stigma has changed over the years. Initially, people with mental illnesses were thought to be crazy and potentially dangerous. Now they have the equally as awful stigma as attention-seekers, faking illness to gain the admiration of their peers. They aren’t taken seriously. There is also the issue that it is border-line impossible for doctors to tell whether patients have mental illnesses for real or if they’re just faking the symptoms. Most psychological disorders have no physical manifestations. Doctors test for them by giving patients surveys which they are expected to fill out accurately. Even brain scans can’t tell you much. False pictures of brain scans comparing “normal” brains to “sick” brains have been circulating the internet, showing that the brains of people who are depressed or suffer from PTSD or OCD appear different from healthy brains. The truth is, it is impossible to diagnose a person with a mental illness based solely on a brain scan. The only reason patients are sometimes given such scans when inquiring about mental illnesses is to rule out other potential medical defects like brain tumors.
Over-diagnosis is another major issue and possible cause of mental illness being treated as a trend. Perhaps all these people truly believe they have disorders because recently, mental illnesses have been disturbingly over-diagnosed. These days anyone can get a prescription for antidepressants, Adderall, anti-anxiety medication, you name it! I’m a prime example of just how easy it is to get unneeded medication for a vague diagnosis. Just a few months ago I went to FSU’s Wellness Center in an attempt to figure out the cause of the frequent panic attacks I was having (and if they were actually panic attacks since I very well could have been wrong). All I did was fill out a survey and I was already having prescriptions thrown at me. I never had to ask, nor did I want medication. I simply wanted to figure out what was going on with me. My panic attacks, I learned, were stress induced and went away after about a month, but I was left with a little orange bottle containing 20 Klonopin pills. I did my research. Klonopin is an extremely addictive and potentially deadly pill that has ruined the lives of thousands. It has been labeled “America’s Most Dangerous Pill.” How did the doctor know I was even telling the truth? I could have been a pill junkie who B.S.’d that entire survey. To this day I have never taken one of the little white pills, because frankly, I don’t need to. I don’t have a mental disorder and I never claimed I did. This is not to say the FSU Wellness center is corrupt, but to say diagnostic criteria for mental illness should be better regulated. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) conducted a survey in 2006 that proved the majority of prescription drug abuse problems in the US are from Benzodiazepines, Klonopin being the second most frequently abused. The same survey found that over 100 million Benzo prescriptions are given out annually in the US. Meanwhile, the National Institute of Mental Health reports that 40 million Americans have anxiety disorders. While this is still a whopping number, the discrepancy between the amount of people in America who actually have anxiety disorders and the much higher number of people being treated with medication for such disorders is disturbing. Some of this over-dispensing may be attributed to the fact that Benzos are also prescribed to help recovering drug addicts/alcoholics and to alleviate insomnia, however the rate at which Benzos are being prescribed is still alarming.
Misinformation about mental illnesses is at the core of the “Misery Movement” problem. People don’t understand what it truly means to have a mental illness so they toss disorders around like they’re nothing because that’s the “cool” thing to do and it will make them seem “deep” and “artsy.” Either that or they claim they have them because they really think regular, every day stress, sorrow, and anxiety are disorders. The truth is, just because you’re sad sometimes does not mean you suffer from depression. Just because you sometimes check two or three times because you don’t remember if you locked the door doesn’t mean you have OCD. Talking to yourself (and sometimes arguing with yourself) does not mean you’re schizophrenic. Just because you change your mind sometimes doesn’t mean you’re bipolar. Being distracted does not mean you have ADD. And being shy is not Social Anxiety Disorder. Too many disorders are over-diagnosed and over-medicated. People need to discuss their emotions and thought processes with one another to clear the air about what’s an illness and what’s “normal,” because it seems a lot of people walk around thinking they’re nuts when they absolutely aren’t. The bottom line is, everybody talks to themselves. Everyone prefers for their friends to text them first. Public speaking makes everyone nervous. Everyone goes through phases of worrying their friends don’t actually like them. Everyone gets stressed out and overwhelmed from time to time. There is a difference between being anxious and having an anxiety disorder and there’s a difference between being said and being depressed. The phrase “disorder” denotes that the problem is so debilitating it keeps people from functioning through daily life. Before you diagnose yourself with one disorder or another, ask yourself: do I really have a disorder or is this a problem everyone faces? And for those of you with real diagnoses: remember, mental illnesses do not define you so don’t allow it to do so. You are more than your disability.