“I’m depressed” or “I might just unalive myself” are being thrown around on the internet as jokes when anything bad happens to a person. It’s almost never a serious tragedy, just inconveniences or something that will resolve itself much faster than larger traumas that occur in people’s lives. These jokes are not funny, because  people do immensely struggle with depression and thoughts of self harm. So has mental illness become too normalized in our culture? 

There is a huge difference between normalizing mental illness and reducing the stigma around mental illness. The goal of destigmatizing mental illness is to make it easier for those who battle mental illness to come forward and talk about their struggles. Destigmatizing is the appropriate way to go about discussing mental illness so those who struggle feel heard and have support. Meanwhile, normalization is the opposite of what society should be doing. Normalizing mental illness is an immense issue because it can make it difficult for those who are affected to talk about what people are experiencing. Mental illness is something that many people struggle with and normalizing it in society works against the goal of destigmatization and furthering the world’s advances on creating a safe place for people with mental health for destigmatization to occur and further the world’s advances on creating a safe space for people who struggle with mental illness to receive the help they need. 

the normalization of mental illness exists to say ❤️💞 it's okay to be miserable and unwell, everyone feels this way, go back to work 💫❤️ instead of questioning what we can do to create a world that meets a spectrum of health and wellness needs

— rayne fisher-quann (@raynefq) January 28, 2021

Social media has had its benefits and downsides when it comes to talking about mental health and mental illness. Social media has been very useful to spread awareness about mental illness. Whether it’s Instagram pages, social media campaigns, or hashtags, the internet has become very useful when it comes to helping people share their story and allowing people to find the resources and help people need to find a light in the dark. However, like everything else in life, social media has its downsides. Social media gives people the platforms to make these kinds of jokes and it contributes heavily to the normalization of mental illness. Throwing around jokes surrounding mental illness like “I’m depressed” is inappropriate and disregards the feelings and struggles of people who battle mental illness. These jokes on social media are offensive to those who do battle their illnesses every day and make people’s everyday struggles a laughing matter.

Friendly reminder.

There is a difference between having mental health issues and having a mental illness. The former is temporary, the latter is (usually) lifelong.

Simplistically, it is like the difference between a cough and having asthma.

— SIUMAN ♿🧠 | #AmendAktaOKU (@KamiSIUMAN) October 10, 2021

So is mental illness becoming too normalized in mainstream culture today? The answer is yes, the jokes and messing around has gone too far. It is creating a whole host of problems for people who struggle with mental illness and mental health. Normalization has caused the world to regress in its efforts to create a safe space for people to come forward and for others to support those who struggle. Normalization needs to stop and the line between destigmatizing and normalizing needs to be drawn much clearer to prevent these kinds of issues in the future. If normalization does not stop now, then there might never be an opportunity for people with mental illness to share their stories about their struggles.