Discussion Kids this days want to be depressed?

[konstantine_217]

I may be wrong and correct me if I am but I feel like a part of gen Z is idolizing depression. I get this generation is exposed to a more depressing lifestyle and social media doesn't help but it's weird to see teenagers who want to have mental issues just for the sake of being different. It's obvious that this happens cause of ignorance and anyone who wants to be seen as depressed doesn't know how it actually feels like.

Thx for reading and feel free to correct my perspective. Also sorry for any grammatical mistakes

 

[lwlaiet8887]

Yes, it's trendy to be different nowdays even in very negative ways. I truly wish I wasn't depressed and had a life worth living.

 

[tarumipemi]

I saw a tweet the other day (deleted now) where a girl asked "how acceptable is it to self-diagnose because she's pretty sure she has depression" and it's so crazy to me. Why would they want to be sick so bad?
That's so funny to me sorry but asking "how acceptable is it" ??
Other people get diagnosed with mental issues and feel distressed about it - not want to be it so bad that they claim to have them without sufficient professional knowledge

 

[silentcicada]

Mental disorders have always been seen as trendy. DID & autism are the new flavor of the month, BPD larping was popular during my time on tumblr as a teen. To say it makes me angry would be an understatement lol

 

[lwlaiet8887]

Mental disorders have always been seen as trendy. DID & autism are the new flavor of the month, BPD larping was popular during my time on tumblr as a teen. To say it makes me angry would be an understatement lol

People who say they have anxiety but are functional annoy me the most. I used to have crippling anxiety where I couldn't speak to anyone, couldn't sleep at night, felt sick to my stomach/would sweat like crazy over inconveniences, had very bad difficult thinking clearlyy, my heart would race all the time. It was exhausting and horrible. I only go over it through sheer willpower and taking better care of my mental wellbeing. "Autism" is the biggest one, you can be an interesting person without having "autism" because every quirky/intelligent/different person has autism right? I got my blood test back and my autism levels were 9000! That makes me such an unique person (I'm evidently being satirical about the bloodtest part)

 

[リンさん]

We don't know and can't make the judgment on who is depressed and who isn't. This goes for almost every single mental illness out there.

It's a lot more complicated than just having "fakers". Not everyone has access to therapy, not everyone is in a position to get a diagnosis (some of which can hamper with their ability to apply for jobs or move countries).

Some conditions can be simply overlooked. Some marginalized groups of people struggle to be taken seriously by medical professionals. This doesn't take away from their struggles.

I can understand the frustration people experience at the idea of someone using mental illnesses as a fun label, but can we really prove who's faking or not? Do we really know their story, or are we making judgements based on stereotypes/our emotions towards this person?

I feel like this is an extremely nuanced topic with no right or wrong answer. As someone who constantly feels "not sick enough" to get help, or "not ill enough" to qualify for my own diagnoses, it's really difficult to talk about.

 

[konstantine_217]

We don't know and can't make the judgment on who is depressed and who isn't. This goes for almost every single mental illness out there.

It's a lot more complicated than just having "fakers". Not everyone has access to therapy, not everyone is in a position to get a diagnosis (some of which can hamper with their ability to apply for jobs or move countries).

Some conditions can be simply overlooked. Some marginalized groups of people struggle to be taken seriously by medical professionals. This doesn't take away from their struggles.

I can understand the frustration people experience at the idea of someone using mental illnesses as a fun label, but can we really prove who's faking or not? Do we really know their story, or are we making judgements based on stereotypes/our emotions towards this person?

I feel like this is an extremely nuanced topic with no right or wrong answer. As someone who constantly feels "not sick enough" to get help, or "not ill enough" to qualify for my own diagnoses, it's really difficult to talk about.

We don't know and can't make the judgment on who is depressed and who isn't. This goes for almost every single mental illness out there.

It's a lot more complicated than just having "fakers". Not everyone has access to therapy, not everyone is in a position to get a diagnosis (some of which can hamper with their ability to apply for jobs or move countries).

Some conditions can be simply overlooked. Some marginalized groups of people struggle to be taken seriously by medical professionals. This doesn't take away from their struggles.

I can understand the frustration people experience at the idea of someone using mental illnesses as a fun label, but can we really prove who's faking or not? Do we really know their story, or are we making judgements based on stereotypes/our emotions towards this person?

I feel like this is an extremely nuanced topic with no right or wrong answer. As someone who constantly feels "not sick enough" to get help, or "not ill enough" to qualify for my own diagnoses, it's really difficult to talk about.

Yes, I think this is the best take on this topic. I avoid to judge them especially if they're really young. Also I think is very normal for a teenager to want to feel special. What amuses me is how some people ctb because depression and other people fake it. Thx for your big reply!

 

[lita-lassi]

everyone tries to forge an identity as a teenager, social media made it more useless to try individualism and humans are pretty garbage as a whole. kids project what theyre given.

 

[silentcicada]

People who say they have anxiety but are functional annoy me the most. I used to have crippling anxiety where I couldn't speak to anyone, couldn't sleep at night, felt sick to my stomach/would sweat like crazy over inconveniences, had very bad difficult thinking clearlyy, my heart would race all the time. It was exhausting and horrible. I only go over it through sheer willpower and taking better care of my mental wellbeing. "Autism" is the biggest one, you can be an interesting person without having "autism" because every quirky/intelligent/different person has autism right? I got my blood test back and my autism levels were 9000! That makes me such an unique person (I'm evidently being satirical about the bloodtest part)

I agree. Same with OCD and ADHD, I was diagnosed very early on and have suffered so much because of it. I worked with a girl that liked me too much only because I'm 'neurodivergent.' She's self diagnosed with autism and it was the only thing she would talk to me about. People who treat it like a fun, quirky personality trait make me lose so much faith.

 

[bluebus]

View attachment 120491

I may be wrong and correct me if I am but I feel like a part of gen Z is idolizing depression. I get this generation is exposed to a more depressing lifestyle and social media doesn't help but it's weird to see teenagers who want to have mental issues just for the sake of being different. It's obvious that this happens cause of ignorance and anyone who wants to be seen as depressed doesn't know how it actually feels like.

Thx for reading and feel free to correct my perspective. Also sorry for any grammatical mistakes

I totally agree with what you're saying, dude. I really just wanted to say I love your profile picture, dude.

 

[SketchedOut]

the terms "ADHD", "Autism", "BPD", "OCD", "DID" and all the others are in my own opinion just labels. sure, they might have some criteria, but those are made up. everyone's experience is different. a person feeling off in their surroundings and not knowing why is absolutely normal, especially in that age, and so it's only natural that they try to figure out why they feel outside the norm so much.

regarding the meme attached with the original post, honestly i find it relatable. it's not that i plan to be mysterious, but it's a funny way to put it. i don't want to talk about my issues in front of others, because i know that to them it tends to be nothing but overwhelming. but i still end up accidentally just sharing my entire fucking life story. no idea why and how this happens, but oh fucking well.

 

[Pluto]

This phenomenon is not new. When I was a teenager in the '90s, there were various youth subcultures along the lines of 'Goths' and 'Emos' which were partly funereal artistic/musical/cultural fashion movements and partly a legitimate expression of mild to moderate mental illness.

Going back further, mainstream music used to openly discuss depressing topics before the subject became taboo. An '80s Metallica song called Fade to Black was controversial at the time for expressing suicidal thoughts, for fear of it encouraging suicide, though defenders argued that it helped young people to recover from suicidal thoughts by validating their feelings. (Sound familiar?)

Anyway, time for Emo Elmo.

 

[Adûnâi]

As someone who constantly feels "not sick enough" to get help, or "not ill enough" to qualify for my own diagnoses, it's really difficult to talk about.

Ditto. I feel like faking absurd labels in an absurd world for absurd reasons. I never formed social connections, but I can talk and never had anxiety. Mental conditions is apparently something I pick and choose as much as political ideologies or fetishes. Just today I've had enough and outright told my mom to abandon the use of the word "autism" pertaining to me because she likes meaningless buzzwords (repeating nonsense like a cheap AI would).

 

[Bodydysmorphia34]

Young and immature kids like to use labels to get attention and do not realize how bad this is for the acceptance of mental illnesses.

That being said, awareness for mental health is nowadays higher than ever and bringing attention to this topic is a good thing so it's a double edged sword.

 

[Celerity]

I have definitely seen what you're talking about. My Gen Z coworkers are way more open about mental health issues and often make light of them. However, I do think a lot of it is genuine. Even from a young age, the kids these days seem to have more social skills deficits and get emotionally overwhelmed easily.

A ton of theories have been developed by psychologists to explain this trend with many even discounting its existence. In my opinion, young kids would be better off if they could spend more time with a loving parent (doesn't have to be mom) and if they spent less time in front of screens.

 

[Bodydysmorphia34]

...huh? Faking having Depression was popular more than ten years ago. It's mostly DID and autism that are in vogue now amongst those who don't have either.

Yeah, the self diagnosis "autism" is quite frequent nowadays. While people may exhibit traits of autism it doesn't necessarily mean they're autistic. Many young people nowadays just lack social skills because they've never learned to develop any (I partially blame the internet/technology for this).

 

[Kit1]

I am a mother of two children - both teenagers now. Having met and interacted with some of their friends, I would say that there are lots of young people with genuine life challenges and mental health challenges. A couple of years ago, a classmate of one of my children's, 13 year old ended his life and had been struggling with mental health challenges. My work colleague's teenage daughter's classmate also took hsi/her life the same week - same age group. Last year, a classmate of my son's nearly died due to similar challenges. And the younger generation do have it tough. It is easy to become cynical especially because those of us on this forum have probably gone through extreme trauma/challenges/neurodivergence/medical issues etc - but pain is pain no matter what.

 

[cryvinglightning]

glamourizing mental health issues has been a thing ever since the early days of the internet. first it was tumblr, now it's tiktok. first it was depression and anxiety, now it's bpd, did and eating disorders. a lot of people in these spaces have no clue what they are talking about, but i think that pretending/wanting to have a disorder proves that there's a problem regardless.

 

[carac]

the terms "ADHD", "Autism", "BPD", "OCD", "DID" and all the others are in my own opinion just labels. sure, they might have some criteria, but those are made up. everyone's experience is different. a person feeling off in their surroundings and not knowing why is absolutely normal, especially in that age, and so it's only natural that they try to figure out why they feel outside the norm so much.

regarding the meme attached with the original post, honestly i find it relatable. it's not that i plan to be mysterious, but it's a funny way to put it. i don't want to talk about my issues in front of others, because i know that to them it tends to be nothing but overwhelming. but i still end up accidentally just sharing my entire fucking life story. no idea why and how this happens, but oh fucking well.

It's so refreshing to see this. I've recently been looking into this sort of thing and watched a talk by a guy called James Davies. He basically did a lot of work investigating big pharma and psychological disorders. He talks about how most modern disorders are simply voted into existence by a panel. In many cases they have a pill they want to push then come up with a disorder to fit the use. This is not to say people don't have real and complex personality issues and trauma, it's just that you can't just slap a label on them and medicate them up to their eyeballs.

 

[Kit1]

Are we being reductionist about the suffering of our young people? For some reason, I feel that we are at the danger of doing this - bearing in mind that this is what happens to so many of us with SI.

 

[Krisis]

I feel it's human nature to uphold stories characterized by adversity. A natural consequence of this is exactly what you describe.

That being said, in light of what @Kit1 wrote directly above, you'd be surprised how many people actually suffer, and the implications of this must be realized. In general, a lot more people suffer than not, and instead of comparing degrees of suffering, one should be more focused on finding commonalities amongst people's suffering; this is of grave importance.

There is a problem related to the one you bring up, though, that arises in people finding solace in crafting an identity for which their suffering serves as the bedrock; we all do this a bit, as the tendency is inextricably linked to self-identity, but some do it to destructive extents.

 

[Scythe]

Just weird twitter and tik tok culture, don't worry about it. You know that one guy back in school who was cringe as fuck because they are trying to be cool and badass? There's always someone out there being weird, doesn't apply to the whole generation. Social media is like news the weird and crazy stuff spreads the fastest because it grabbs people's attention, and it gets a reaction. Social media focuses on these negative people and make them seem like a huge deal, but going by precentage, there isn't a lot of ppl like that out there. There is an increase in mental illness though, but that's irrelenvent to people wanting mental illness to look cool. There's been awareness raised about mental health and more push to get help so more people are getting diagnosed. Society is also falling to shit and covid caused an increase as well.

 

[Riig]

View attachment 120491

I may be wrong and correct me if I am but I feel like a part of gen Z is idolizing depression. I get this generation is exposed to a more depressing lifestyle and social media doesn't help but it's weird to see teenagers who want to have mental issues just for the sake of being different. It's obvious that this happens cause of ignorance and anyone who wants to be seen as depressed doesn't know how it actually feels like.

Thx for reading and feel free to correct my perspective. Also sorry for any grammatical mistakes

It essentially is the end result of removing Family, Faith, Identity and any connection to a Role Model. If the youth doesnt have any foundation to build on they will idolise the next best thing validating their misery or giving them attention.