What’s an Instagram scroll without a cheeky anxiety or depression meme? These memes are clearly widely relatable based on the ‘so me’ comments. Mental health is in the public eye, but is it getting the attention it deserves? With World Mental Health day having come and gone, I’ve been reflecting on this question. My conclusion: yes and no.
Mental health has been thrust into the social spotlight and increasingly so during the year that has snowballed into a complete disaster. Anxiety is rampant, depression is increasing and people are all expressing their struggles on social media. Mental health has become quite a trend. In my opinion, this is both good and bad. The trend spreads awareness of the existence of mental health on multiple platforms which can foster discussions as well as finding support. Although the trend has made mental health a mainstream concept, the trend has also trivialised mental health and the effects and experiences caused by mental health conditions.
The current social climate also focuses on more ‘socially acceptable’ forms of mental illness. People are quick to discuss anxiety or depression but talking about not being able to get out of bed because of a depressive episode or having scratch marks up and down your arms from panic attacks are still taboo and to be ignored at all costs. Further than this, some mental health conditions are entirely ignored. As a result, certain diagnoses or mental characteristics are bathed in stigma because no re-education has been brought to the public since era’s when a slight tear would put you in a ‘nut house’. I cannot pretend to be immune to this. The unknown faces of stranger illnesses made them my enemy. These strangers were not only feared by me but by everyone around me too. I buried my unrecognisable features basting crumbling mental health so deep in myself that they were only apparent retrospectively.
My diagnosis of bipolar made me a stranger to myself. I had no idea who this person was that was controlling my mind and body. I felt misplaced and as if I had lost myself. The stigma surrounding bipolar engulfed my family and friends. A particular family member began to make an attack on the new stranger in our home. This new stranger needed to be controlled. When this stranger was finally recognised as me, it was not the same me as I was the day before. I was a fragile little girl who needed to be looked after. Suddenly, in their eyes, I was broken. My brokenness was inevitable to prevent me from living the life I had hoped and planned on living out. “We will have to rethink your whole life and your future choices based on this experience,” was a sentence often thrown around as if it was as meaningless as a ball in a game of catch. The only problem was I was neither the receiver nor the pitcher of the ball in the game. These decisions were out of my hands. My diagnosis was viewed to make me an incapable and dependent womxn who could not make her own decisions. This shrivelled my self-esteem and confidence. My self-perception was quickly becoming greatly negative due to the stigma of the diagnosis of bipolar disorder as being a debilitating disorder that was held by those who I had counted on for support. This stigma was making my mental health exponentially worse. This all could have been avoided if attention was given to mental health in a capacity that was not achieved in popular culture.
