Bringing awareness to mental health has allowed many people to seek help and improve the quality of their life with dignity, but it has lent its own hand to backhanded, ignorant comments. Mental health disorders are not adjectives: you are not “OCD” because you like to keep your desk organized, nor “bipolar” because you have the occasional mood swing. Shoutout to the psychology majors—you are NOT qualified to identify mental health disorders because of your upper division classes.
These comments are more noticeable in younger populations, specifically age groups that are aware of mental health disorders by word-of-mouth and not through formal education. Therefore, there becomes a higher risk in perpetuating stereotypes and simultaneously downplaying the severity of these disorders.
Sometimes, it is an unconscious habit to overanalyze our situations. I know I’m not the only one who has fixated on physical or emotional symptoms, only to do one Google search and have WebMD claim I have chickenpox for a small pimple. With the dissemination of mental health knowledge, we all have become more prone to hyper-analyzing our moods, attitudes, and overall behaviors. In some cases, it is incredibly beneficial to have a superficial understanding of mental health, as you will be more likely to identify certain symptoms and seek help from a professional to confirm your dilemma—which is better than someone who doesn’t believe in or isn’t aware whatsoever about mental health. However, the key in that statement is seeking help from a professional—NOT taking labels from the internet or friends and confirming it as your identity.
What can equally be malicious is making assumptions about other people’s mental states. It’s one thing to call ourselves OCD, depressed, bipolar, etc. It’s a completely other thing to plaster these labels on others without consent or knowledge of their situation. By doing so, we are again downplaying the severity and complexity of diagnoses while perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Even worse, we begin to throw our empathy out the door and make sweeping statements that can have negative consequences.
Whether with others or ourselves, making claims about our mental states without consulting therapists, psychiatrists, or other healthcare professionals is a harmful, ignorant act, because by labeling ourselves or others as “depressed,” “bipolar,” “schizophrenic,” etc, we are reducing theirs and our identities to a single diagnosis—a diagnosis that isn’t even confirmed.
As human beings, we live mentally and emotionally rich lives, which are all a direct expression of our complex functioning. Even in the field of neurology and psychiatry, there is much that needs to be discovered. However, one thing that can confidently be said is that these fields have been built on extensive clinical trials and higher education. It is disrespectful to these fields, ourselves, and others to throw around mental health disorders as mere adjectives rather than multi-faceted health issues that have a methodology to be identified and managed.
Situations like this shed light on the current state of the American mental health educational system, but thankfully, every day is a chance to learn and become a better person. It is always recommended to seek help from a professional and/or have a heart-to-heart conversation with a loved one you are concerned for, but it is all the more crucial to slow down, have a comprehensive understanding on signs and symptoms of mental health dilemmas, consult educated professionals before coming to conclusions, and exercising empathy throughout the process.