How Mental Illness Became Trendy In The 2010s

Is mental illness become so romanticised in the media that becomes desirable? While this is a fantastic thing, with this new transparency there are unfortunately also those who have taken advantage of it, heeding mental illness as far as it seems to have been devalued as "trending."

We see this now mainly in the media, with influencers, movies, TV shows, and blog posts all contributing to this sweetener a very serious topic.

1. Television and film depictions

One of the most prominent examples of this is the Netflix show of the reasons why, which has recently become Headline after being removed the controversial scene where the main character's suicide is displayed in very explicit detail. While this option has met with mixed reactions, it is obvious that the producers eventually Clock into the damage that the event was doing.

The problem with the thirteen reasons why is that it portrays suicide in a very strange light and shows it as an evil act, as the protagonist uses his death to cause harm and blames the other character While he herself is heroised. This is a destructive step to take because glamorises commit suicide to alarming levels, especially when there is an impressing young audience watching.

This event has been condemned by various preventive suicide charities and a study by Jama Psychiatry found that there was a "direct increase in suicide beyond the generally increasing trend observed among target audiences of 10-to 19-year-old individuals in Three months after the show's release.

2.  "Aesthetic " Tumblr Posts

Type anything mental health related to TUMBLR and a large number of black and white pictures of pretty girl crying with a quote about the depression written above will appear. There is a terrible connection on the Internet that the pain equals beauty and this is really noticeable on platforms like TUMBLR and Instagram.

In addition, these pictures of sadness quotes online rarely ever help, and quite often they seem to promote suicide with quotations such as  "When the final depression? When it ends you  "or " I'm nothing, I'm always nothing. 

3. Influencer Capitalising on mental illness

In February of this year YouTuber and Instagram model Corinna Kopf released her new merchandise, with Hoodies and T-shirts with the slogan  "Anxiety I have been anxious " written on the front and back with an anxiety dictionary definition, with the price Retail $44. The problem with this line of merchandise is that it makes anxiety a character trait.

Encouraging the idea that it's something funny and relatable that 12-year-old girl will wear to school without knowing the real impact behind her; and trivialising the anxiety experience that so many people struggle to deal with each day. This is just one example of the capitalization of the mental illness, as it becomes more and more common in the media every day.

In conclusion...

This is probably the main way in which I have seen the romanticised mental illness and undermine into something desirable and "trendy" in the media. This is a problem where the damage was difficult to measure but obviously very influential for many people, especially those who were young and impressed. What do you think of this topic? Let us know in the comments below.