There is a lot more talk about mental health these days. There are significant benefits: it encourages the normalization of mental health challenges, destigmatizes asking for help, allows increased knowledge, education, and awareness, and can encourage a sense of community and support. Thanks to this change in perspectives, common myths and stereotypes around mental health are debunked, disorders and diagnoses are shared more comfortably, and judgement-free discussions on mental health have become more and more popular. And while this may be considered terrific news and a sign of progress, are there any pitfalls? Are there any downsides to the fact that we are now discussing mental health significantly more than ever before?

Now that information around mental health, symptoms, and treatments is so readily accessible, especially online and on social media, one possibility that can occur is diagnoses made by a person with no qualifications to do so. Many young people now believe they are living with a mental illness when in fact they are just experiencing the ups and downs of regular life. They may “diagnose” others or themselves, based on scraps of information (or worse, misinformation) they find online, may identify themselves incorrectly as having a disorder or struggle, treat themselves inaccurately, and could then spread the wrong ideas to others. Moreover, some may feel strongly that they are living with a particular disorder without ever speaking with a professional, and then reject the therapies and mental health practices that are standardized, safe, and proven, because they fear the mental health and medical field are too rigid, not inclusive enough, too expensive, too conservative, or just not in line with what they saw on TikTok.

Many young people now believe they are living with a mental illness when in fact they are just experiencing the ups and downs of regular life.

This can be very dangerous: misunderstanding what constitutes mental health issues can lead to armchair diagnoses, pseudoscience, and negative pop culture influences (for example, when people online recommend treating severe mental health disorders by just drinking tons of water and practicing gratitude).

It’s also been shown that the increase of mental health conversations can lead to rumination (repetitive thinking about something that may cause distress or illness)–if you are constantly talking about it, thinking about it, and reading about it everywhere, you may spiral into a panic thinking you have a disorder that you may not actually have. For example, a slight tendency to be a germophobe plus over-analysis and over-interpretation may lead to a self-diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Moreover, this rumination can cause young, impressionable, or vulnerable people to think that their symptoms are not treatable and a biological inevitability: they will sink into a harmful rhetoric that their mental health is beyond their control and that they are doomed. Worse, mental health struggles could even be romanticized and glorified as a by-product of the well-intended pursuit of normalizing these conversations.

Of course, no one would recommend halting mental health conversations. The normalization of mental health struggles is a vital step in increasing people’s comfort with openly confiding in others, sharing how and where to seek help, and finding or creating support services. The pitfalls of too much talk about mental health suggest that discussions should be treated as ways to educate and normalize, and not to self-diagnose or to remedy symptoms inaccurately. Increased talk about mental health is needed and brave, but the potential downsides cannot be ignored.

–Nazila Tolooei
From Share & Care Fall 2024

Click here for references