Mental Disease as a Sensation

Why is it romantic to be depressed?

I’ve recently read an article about The Romanticization of Mental Health by fellow mental health advocates Forever Blooming. The article is old(er) but the topic is new and in my opinion not yet explored enough, so I felt inspired.

When we think about romanticism we probably think about flowers, candles, wining, and dining with your loved one (or with your own beautiful self). We generally think of something nice, don’t we?

Disease on the other hand is not nice. Ask anyone who is chronically ill. Be it psychologically or physically — it is not fun. So much so that we have a saying where I come from— “A healthy man has thousands of wishes, a sick man only one.”

When you look at the definition of illness by Merriam-Webster or by Britannica, it turns out that the easiest way to define it is to describe it as a lack of health or as being unhealthy.

Now when we got definitions out of the way, the question is, what it actually means to romanticize mental health issues? And how did we come to that point?

Anya Marquardt, Author at the Statesman in her article about the topic defines it nicely:

“Romanticizing of mental health issues occurs when one portrays a mental disorder as “glamorous” or “beautifully painful”, (…) as something that is attractive, (…) instead of recognizing that disorders are real issues that affect people’s lives in many ways”.

Translated into everyday life — every time you hear someone saying “Oh, I’m so depressed. I didn’t pass my last exam.” when you know for a fact they are not clinically depressed, or “I think I have anxiety. I’m so nervous because of my job interview”, although they are not actually diagnosed with anxiety disorder.

It can be considered attention-seeking because both of these words got serious attention in the last decade or two. Thank all the good work done removing the mental health stigma.

Through educating and raising awareness about mental health these words have gotten into the vocabulary of ordinary people. They have become popular. I am all about freedom of speech, but I am also for education. There are other words that can be used instead.

Why is this a problem?

It is trivializing the disorder(s).

For people who are really suffering from these debilitating disorders, this sounds like mockery. They might feel frustrated and angry.

It becomes popular. However, this is not the first time in history being sad has been popularized.

Does anyone remember the Emo phase in history (the early 2000s)? What was all that about? Mostly impressionable teens were affected/influenced by the movement. It was not only about tight skinny jeans, dark make-up, and specific dark haircuts, it was allegedly also about depression and self-harm.

Many of the “emo” bands at the time actually rejected their “title” because they refused to be associated with self-harming behaviors, suicides, depression, etc.

In general, it is safe to say Emos received a lot of backlash, criticism, and controversy.

If we go even further back, all the way to the 18th century we’ll see that Goethe’s “Sorrows of Young Werther”, also received a lot of backlashes. The book was banned because of the rise in the suicide rate.

In case you ever want to read this book, I don’t want to ruin the ending for you, so — SPOILER ALERT: our main guy — Werther commits suicide due to his unrequited love for young Lotte. The book has become very popular and some young people committed copycat suicide.

In most recent years the show “13 Reasons Why” has been the most controversial considering the topic. I haven’t watched the show, as I have no interest in spending time on stories about suicide outside my work.

Why? Because they usually depict it wrong. Needless to say, I was right — (as I’ve read) throughout the whole series, it presented suicide as means of revenge for one attention-seeking teenager. Very little recognition was given to the mental diseases that are the main causes of suicide.

I’m not saying things should be banned. This obviously doesn’t work. I first would want to read “the banned book” or watch the series you are not supposed to watch as a teenager. But things should not be sensationalized.

Presenting mental disorders in such a way, a young impressionable teen can get the idea that it is cool if you have depression. It makes you special, different than others. Not everyone has it, so it is almost exclusive.

With sensation comes exclusivity.

It can go so far that the ones who actually need help, refuse it because then they will be a regular, ordinary “normie”. It is better to suffer and be beautifully special.

I’m very happy to see the conversations around mental health normalize, as they should. Mental Health seems to be considered and taken into account in different conversations, which is a great step forward. However, popularizing suffering from mental health issues would feel like a great step backward.

So, next time you catch yourself or someone else saying “I’m so depressed”, remember what you have just read.

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