“I’m depressed.” “Literally me.”. It’s a common topic of conversation these days, especially with youth. Through internet activism and exposure, mental health is becoming more visible, and in some cases, the stigma surrounding mental illness is slowly fading. However, as beneficial as social media has been to decreasing the taboo surrounding mental health, there is a flip side: the glorification of mental illnesses. Recent trends on TikTok, a social media app, have been romanticizing the idea of being diagnosed with and living with a mental illness, especially rare disorders, such as borderline personality disorder. Additionally, the glorification of psychological disorders online could lead to a “trend” of harming those receiving treatment for those disorders, in that it’s seen as “cool” or “quirky” to have these disorders, influencing impressionable youth to not receive treatment for disorders.
Social media has been problematic for years now, due to its harmfulness in the development of youth, especially in a time where children as young as 10 have access to social media. Additionally, the toxicity of social media leads often to needing validation from social media for everything: how one eats, dresses, looks, etc. The romanticization of psychological disorders has led to youth often needing validation through pretending or exaggerating “symptoms” of rare disorders, such as schizophrenia or DID.
Dissociative Identity Disorder, also known as DID, is a rare psychiatric disorder, associated with severe symptoms of behavioral health. A combination of severe trauma and underlying behavioral issues lead to a single individual experiencing many “identities”, which function independently of each other. Each identity has perceptible behaviors, and even distinct memories. DID affects approximately 1.5% of the global population, showing its rarity. DID is very difficult to diagnose, with some patients spending up to 12.5 years before being diagnosed. However, due to the glorification of DID and the watering down of symptoms, the general population has begun to self-diagnose themselves with DID, even creating a TikTok trend where people vlog their day-to-day lives “living with DID”, and showing their different ‘alters’, with many individuals showcasing harmful behaviors such as sleep deprivation or self-harm, due to their “alters”.
Although the conversation around psychological disorders on social media has been a significant step in destigmatization, it has led to the overuse of psychological terms and the self-diagnosis of disorders, specifically by Generation Z individuals. The self-diagnosis of mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, etc. has inevitably then led to the romanticization of psychological disorders, specifically through the trend #literallyme in relating to media characters. For example, Joker (the main antagonist in the DC Batman films), is shown to be a very mentally disturbed individual. However, his character is glamorized and even envied on social media, with some comments stating “he’s so me” or romanticizing the abusive relationship between Harley Quinn and the Joker. The same has been done with Patrick Bateman, the protagonist of American Psycho, who experiences psychotic attacks with hallucinations.
When looking at the psychological underbelly of the glamorization of mental illness, we see that the Internet is not able to differentiate between universal human emotions, such as sorrow or grief, and genuine symptoms of mental disorders. The “trend” of self-diagnosis has been in some ways detrimental to the normalization of mental health. The youth of today are impressionable individuals, especially for the Internet, and this leads to them self-diagnosing, or even adopting personality traits based on troubled characters, leading to misinterpretations or even the strengthening of underlying psychological troubles.
The rabbit hole of social media lures youth in. The algorithm feeds off a person’s likes and dislikes, reinforcing negativity and ensnaring young individuals into the virtual world, where having rare mental disorders is rewarded with likes and comments. But, as we move to an online era, this is a wake-up call; to use the power of social media for good. While it’s okay to not be okay, it’s also okay to be okay.
Citations:
Revayova, Z. (2024). Encouraging insanity: how social media is glorifying mental health disorders • Adamah Media. Retrieved from https://adamah.media/encouraging-insanity-how-social-media-is-glorifying-mental-health-disorders/
Mitra, P. (2023). Dissociative Identity Disorder. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568768/
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