Fighting stigma against mental illness is a large part of the work of mental health advocates. But is there a right and wrong way to spread awareness for mental illness? As of late, popular culture has been portraying mental health in a way that benefits some people more than the people it really should. Our peer educator, Reed, gives his take on this phenomenon by commenting on an article on the merchandising of mental illness.
A Commentary on Merchandising Mental Health
By: Reed Asselbaye
This article is about the recent “merchandising” of mental health issues in popular culture. Author Rhiannon Picton-James explains the case against the glamorization and cultural infatuation of mental illness through a variety of lens. In today’s pop culture, depression is often viewed as something that’s cool or trendy. We have an entire subculture of “sad girls” and “sad boys” on social media which publish content to appease a particular demographic.
The article resonated with me because I think a lot about how we treat mental health as a society. There are so many stigmas attached to mental illness, yet we romanticize certain aspects of it. Words like “anxiety” and “depression” are thrown around without regard to the fact that these are real mental illnesses. It’s clear to me that people care more about the capitalistic benefits of mental illness than actual treatment.
The most dangerous thing about our “trendy” obsession with mental illness is that children are growing up with these influences. There are so many kids out there who have anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns. These kids are developing in a world that romanticizes (yet still looks down upon) mental illness. Grown folk need to be doing better in how mental illness is portrayed to the younger generation.
There is also a huge component of this story that isn’t really touched upon in the article—capitalistic gain. I believe that making money off of mental illness is a huge motive for companies who sell merchandise that glamorizes those issues. It’s time that we hold companies accountable to what they put out, and we also need to hold consumers responsible for what they’re purchasing. Then, we can truly work on tackling mental illness in a comprehensive way.