is the romanticisation of mental illness good, actually?

From tumblr edits to TikTok trends - mental illness has always been romanticised and glamourised on the internet - but is this really always a bad thing? Let's dive into the controversial and paradoxical discourse surrounding mental health aesthetics...

[emris]

The intrusive thoughts thing really bothers me. I have experiences of genuinely deeply disturbing intrusive thoughts. Somebody else exclaiming that they MUST reflect something about that person is incredibly damaging. We already struggle with enough guilt as it is. It has taken me a lot of hard work to get over that guilt and recognise that these thoughts are not a reflection of who I am and what I desire at all.

[Dancinglemon]

Not watched beyond the first 5 minutes but the glamourisation of mental illness just makes me think of all the times people have told others they’ll be there for them, that they understand and sympathise until the symptoms start actually showing and you become an inconvenience or disgusting because you haven’t been able to shower for a week.

Edit: thank you for bringing that point up and the one about intrusive thoughts in your video! A very nuanced and sensitive look into mental health, loved watching it.

[raoultitulaer]

As someone who was also gearing up for the season of SAD, it was nice to hear how aestheticising could actually be helpful in concrete ways. I never considered how this trend I never really engaged with (I'm not on social media) can be 'used' therapeutically.

As always a great video, tysm ✨✨

[CastielWillow]

As always, I so appreciate your thoughtful commentary. You know what this reminds me of? How consumption, or TB, was romanticized in especially the 19th century. We can't control or easily fix this epidemic, so we are all trying to find ways to cope with and assimilate these very hard things. Most of the time, most of us are doing our best. Any tool that fits in your tool box and helps? Use it. Light a candle, make a warm drink, do whatever works. It's kept me going this long.

[lalegutierrez]

When I was at my lowest point about a year ago I remember seeing romanticized mental illness posts and crying so hard because my suffering wasn’t that pretty and as it didn’t look like that I thought I wasn’t deserving of help. There’s content that helps, of course, but I can’t help to have that memory playing in my head. I wish no one goes through that.

[pitchlag]

SAD can hit Hard here in the north where we have a good 3 month period (early November to early February) where daylight lasts less than 8 hours a day, at its worst in late December it's not even 5½ hours 😓Yet as long as there's even a bit of snow to brighten the scenery, winter isn't as bad as fall for me, but I've been trying to get at least some second-hand autumn joy from people like Rachel Maksy lol

[whisperspirit]

As someone with Autism and Anxiety, thank you for making this video!

[islasullivan]

Yes intrusive thoughts are usually very different than impulsive ones. I do like that kellmarkis did shorts showing the difference between the two.

[sohanicridland]

Cleanliness is a topic that gets brought up surrounding depression. Racially I think it affects black people, especially women and girls, differently than some others. In the black community, mostly the female half of it, there is a hygiene Olympics that makes a lot of women work overtime and sometimes in an obsessive compulsive to maintain cleanliness. The feeling that you always need to be presentable or you always need to smell nice stems from the idea that black women are dirty, another topic for another day. For black women with depression, more effort must be applied for them to even get into the shower or clean up their rooms when compared to black women who aren’t. Pressure from family, friends, and the general community forces you to get up and make sure you shower first thing in the morning and/or last thing at night. The feeling that you are dirty and the stigma around from the peer pressure forces an intrusive thoughts like “maybe I am dirty”, “I need to bathe right away to avoid unwanted commentary”, and compulsive thoughts like “is it off” while scrubbing your skin until it hurts. It’s scary stuff and it’s very real.

[eaewemthso]

so, when it comes to aestheticisation in psych survivor communities in particular (which are often entirely left out of conversations surrounding mental health), the aesthetic often comes to serve a very particular political purpose, that is, as agitprop, advocating for the particular needs and demands of those whom the system for mental health as it exists has traumatized and thrown by the wayside, and providing a rallying point for those people

[Maerahn]

It's a VERY fine line. I have OSDD, and, on the one hand, any social media posts that promote an idea of alters within systems being simply a life coping mechanism, and not a Hollywood serial killer thriiler trope a' la movies like 'Split, ' is a positive and helpful way to make those of us with identity disorders feel less 'other' and stigmatised. However, posts from people who may or may not have these disorders for real and make having alters look like a form of cosplaying the fanfiction in your own head - and leave people thinking "Oooh, that looks like a really fascinating and quirky mental health disorder to have - if I was going to have ANY mental health disorder, I think I'd want THAT one!" - are INSULTING, they trivialise what those of us who DO have it actually go through, and can even cause bigger problems than they solve, with the risk that some people may self-diagnose with an identity disorder because it feels 'more acceptable' than getting another diagnosis that has a less 'cool' aesthetic, but is closer to what they might ACTUALLY have. Misdiagnosis can be just as damaging as no diagnosis, and 'picking' a mental health disorder for yourself simply because it's one you'd 'rather' have can prevent you from getting the help you REALLY need.

[brenohenrique]

The amount of research and care on this video should be the norm all over social media

[Kim-izfx]

This is a very nuanced and interesting video as always, thank you Rowan. You really put into words all of the possible visions of the mental unwellness aesthetics. Thank you ❤

[softwaifu]

This is the conversation i always f---ing wanted and no one was having thank you. I feel like these discussjons always come from the starting assumption that "romanticization of pain/sadness = bad" and im just like, all history would disagree?

And i dont just mean that in a "van gough and poe struggled their entire lives and produced great art" way - i mean it in like an "exaltation of the martyrs", "saint joan hallucinated angels", "the virgen of guadalupe appeared to man as an indigenous woman" kind of way....

It's also a little bit of "damn, we can't even be SAD correctly?" - the moralization of the sadness of teenage girls has always been wild when I think about the normalization of the sadness and anger of teenage boys, when that often ends in violence.

[sweetbeetyourfriend]

huffing the social critiques today like they're glue, thanks for the good upload time!

[Yeyee]

I'm still messed up from pro ana live journal pages like 20 years later now 😭

[edgyintellect]

I only listen to sad music. End of story.
No therapist will ever get a say in that.

[mercurialrose]

Not gonna lie, speaking as someone with both NPD and OCD, I’m pretty sure I can confidently blame internet armchair pop psychology for like 90% of my self esteem issues related to my neurodivergence, and most of it came from liberal self proclaimed “mental health advocates”. Those TikToks about “how to trigger/destroy/kill/read a narcissist” really did a number on me while my symptoms were at their worst 💀

[gabrielajonczyk]

Looks shouldn't be connected to mental health, objects or material thing in itself is a better or "right" option. Owning something or presenting yourself in a certain way shouldn't be connected to this, it should be more of seeing beyond the self objectifying mirrors.

[scoopearly]

Intrusive thoughts aren't strictly a clinical term, according to the DSM and ICD. And yes, people without OCD and PTSD can experience them. I definitely agree that they should be taken seriously. I will also say that "impulsive thoughts" also has a similar connotation when diagnosing ADHD. I think its okay to have some symptoms remain colloquial terms