Glorification of Mental Illness on Social Media

Trigger warning: This article discusses topics such as Eating Disorders, Depression, Anxiety, OCD, and Self-harm.

With the growth of social media, there is a concern over how mental illness is painted on popular apps. There is a growing trend of depicting psychological disorders as romantic or artistic leading to its glamorisation. When such happens, the public image of mental illness is distorted from the reality of the disorders. Instead of spreading awareness and killing stigma, it leads to a glorifying and false representation of mental illness.

The American Psychiatric Association describes mental illness as “health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these).” Mental illnesses cause distress and often interrupt the social, family, and work lives of people. Mental illnesses are like any other physical illness that we might suffer from and can be treated with the help of professional psychiatrists and psychologists. 

Mental health, for a very long time, was considered taboo, and conversation on the topic was silenced. With social media connecting more and more people, discussions on mental health and related illnesses have gained a new surge. However, more often than not, the description of mental illness and disorders over social media has failed to provide a realistic image of what they are. This is where the concern about the glamorization of mental illness over social media and how it might affect the youth, comes into play.

When it comes to popular social media apps such as Instagram, TikTok, or Tumblr, mental health illnesses are often seen to be discussed lightly, whether in the form of short videos, memes, or images. One may say that this has helped in normalizing the topic and initiating the discourse around it, which was indeed the primary intention of this trend. But over time, we have noticed an increase in the portrayal of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, OCD, or self-harm as “trendy”, “cool” or “romantic.” This has led to the misrepresentation of mental illnesses, which has often resulted in mitigating their severity. Depression is not just having a sad mood, anxiety is not the same as nervousness, and OCD is not the same as perfectionism. They are much more than these fleeting moments and require professional help.

What is even more disturbing is that there are channels and pages on social media that promote eating disorders and self-harm. People use hashtags such as Ana, Mia, and ed, which are abbreviations of Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and eating disorders, to upload posts that promote dangerous behaviors. A simple search on Tumblr with #ana will lead you to several posts talking about eating disorders, often in a very unhealthy manner. “Thinspo”, which means “thin inspiration”, is a recent trend on social media to promote unhealthy eating habits to be skinnier. The goal is to lose weight and have a “prettier” body type. The craze for a thigh gap, protruding collar bones, sharp jaw lines, and thin waist as promoted on social media often leads to severe eating disorders, especially among young girls, by setting unrealistically high standards of beauty. These social media posts not only show a romantic version of eating disorders but also provide steps to develop such disorders as if having them would help one become what is considered conventionally beautiful.

Images circulated in social media about mental health are often very aesthetically pleasing. One might look at these images and say they are artistic or poetic, but the truth is they only serve as distorters to the actual face of the illness. The use of filters, mood boards, poetic lines, and memes reduces the shock effect and almost makes the illness look elegant or attractive. Very often, on social media, self-harm is portrayed as something that is “tragically beautiful” or shown in a very romantic light, when the truth is that self-injury is a result of strong emotional pain. It is as damaging to call self-harm beautiful and artistic, as it is to call it crazy or lunatic. It is a matter of serious concern that requires professional treatment. 

With more and more people reducing mental disorders to just an aesthetic, the real conversation gets buried under several mood boards and grayscale images. Though people are now more aware of the existence of mental illness, there has been a reversed effect of these platforms, where people have started considering psychological problems as appealing, easy to tackle, and even desirable to a certain extent. These negligent discussions surrounding serious topics misguide people into unhealthy habits and lifestyles. Along with that, there is a tendency to self-diagnose yourself with a disorder because of misinformation taken from the internet. People start desiring to have a disorder since having a disorder is considered attractive or “sexy.”

It would, however, be wrong to say that glamorization of mental illness is found only in social media. As we are speaking of social media, it should only be right if we mention movies, television media, music, clothing, and literature have, for years, been culprits of romanticizing and glamorizing psychological disorders. It has become high time that we address these issues. There is a need to break these walls of aesthetic representation of mental illnesses and educate people about the fact that mental illness is painful, and pain is not pretty. The focus should shift to the importance of seeking help and providing the needed support, rather than gaining more followers or attention from the general public.

Zakia Tasnim Ahmed is a student pursuing Psychology Honours from Jamia Millia Islamia.

Edited by: Sania Parween