It Is Not A Joke

Do you remember a few years back when a frenzy broke out over twitter called ‘Cut for Bieber’. It was basically a bunch of young kids cutting themselves and posting pictures with that hashtag to make light of Justin Bieber allegedly smoking weed back in 2013. While I was showering the other day I fell into one of my deep thinking moments and that  came across my thoughts, and it made me think how much it glorified self-harm. I have seen this trend so much over the past couple years. People glorying self harm, or mental health issues or depression or even eating disorders over the internet. I saw a picture recently that said ‘stressed, depressed, but well dressed’. Which made me kinda upset- I mean, obviously it was supposed to be a joke. But that is the point. Depression is not a joke.

Did you know that about 20% of teens will experience legitimate depression before they reach adulthood, and about 10-15% of teenagers have some symptoms of teen depression at any one time. If you really honestly think about it, that is not a lot. 20% of the whole teenage population is not everyone across all social media saying how depressed but well dressed they are. I mean, do not get me wrong- I know there are a bunch of people with actual struggles. But I also know that a lot of teens and young adults like to play the ‘self diagnosis game’. I can almost guarantee you, if you have anxiety or depression or you cut or anything to that extent, you would not flaunt it on a t-shirt for the whole world to see. Studies show that people with depression and anxiety would most likely be shy, it is not a ‘symptom’ of either- but it is pretty common. So showing off what you are most self conscious about is not logical.

Now, by no means am I trying to bash anyone for what they think they have. If you think you are depressed or you cut or have a mental illness or anything of that nature- seek professional help right away. What I am trying to say is that flaunting serious illnesses that people actually struggle with everyday is not a joke, and it should be put to an end. I will be completely honest, I struggle with social anxiety. In no way am I shy around people, I just tend to get a bit nervous in large crowds. Seeing someone over the internet basically make fun of that sort of thing is hurtful. A lot of the time I can control it, and to this day I have not had a major anxiety attack but there are a bunch of people in the world, that are not as lucky. Mental health is not a joke, and it should not be treated as such. What do you think of this topic? Is it something that offends you?

Like I said, I am not a professional; I only know about what I struggle with and what I have researched. If you believe you are struggling with anything I have talked about or anything in general please seek help and remember that is just A bad day- not A bad life.

For more information please visit:

http://www.teenhelp.com/teen-depression/depression-statistics.html

Edited by: Holley McLane