Gen Z also uses particular, jokey slang when talking about mental illness. A stay at a psychiatric hospital, for example, is called "a grippy sock vacation." A mental breakdown is referred to as "menty b" and has become commercialized, appearing on mugs, T-shirts, and other merchandise on Etsy and similar e-commerce platforms.
That's where the ugly side of joking about mental illness comes in. By making fun of their mental struggles, people might trivialize their own or others' conditions. Clinical psychologist Dr. Nicholas Westers told CNN that by using that kind of language, people distance themselves from their symptoms and are essentially doing nothing about them. "That reflects very little control over the distress and doesn't reflect any pursuit of healthy coping strategies."
Westers worries that using cutesy language to refer to serious mental health conditions and overinterpretation ("I'm so OCD", for example) could be just as dangerous as not talking about mental health at all. "It's possible that our culture is moving to the other extreme, where we're going to trivialize it and destigmatize it so much; everyone's going to talk about it using fun language."
As long as we understand that it's all in good fun, we shouldn't be in any trouble. So, how many of these memes did you find relatable, Pandas? Let us know in the comments! But don't fret if you haven't, as you can check our previous article about the Mental Illness and Memes page right here!
