The Just Nihilist Things meme page has been running since 2016. As of 2024, it boasts over 21k followers. That might not seem like a lot, but the number doesn't diminish the relatability or relevancy of the content. A portion of the memes are nihilistic, but, more than anything, they are about mental health and those who struggle with mental health issues.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist Dr. Janina Scarlet believes that memes about mental health can have a positive effect for people who struggle with mental health issues. "I find that individuals with anxiety and depression often feel invalidated and unseen in their experiences," Dr. Scarlet tells Bored Panda.
"As such, well-researched and supportive memes can significantly benefit people with anxiety and depression by destigmatizing their experiences and make them feel less alone. At the same time, memes that are not well-researched might be damaging to people with anxiety and depression because they can add to those individuals' suffering and experiences of being unseen, unheard, and undervalued."
Dr. Scarlet says that whether memes can shape societal attitudes toward mental health depends on their content and who's creating them. "Some mental health themes have been extremely helpful and are suggestive of societal understanding and destigmatizing of these experiences."
Interestingly, memes can be used in therapeutic settings as well. "Provided that they are depicting a sensitive and compassionate attitude toward people who struggle with mental health,” Dr. Scarlet adds.
"Sometimes, seeing a meme, hearing a song, or seeing another piece of media that reflects one's own experience of suffering can not only be helpful, it can give that individual hope and can, in some instances, be life-saving."
As we've mentioned above, memes can actually help with issues like anxiety and stress. Associate professor of Emerging Media, Dr. Benjamin Burroughs, tells us that it’s because Internet memes can be a great source of humor and release. "Memes often work so well within the clutter of modern social media and digital life because they can quickly and humorously puncture the quotidian."
"The memes with ‘Just Nihilist Things’ seem to play a role in being a kind of cathartic release," Dr. Burroughs observes. "Memes are referential and not long-form humor, so you should immediately get the reference and the joke embedded within. Humor is often a coping mechanism, and these kinds of memes can stud our everyday digital life – granting us a cathartic release."
He notes that memes can be both beneficial and harmful to individuals who struggle with mental health conditions. "They can make social media platforms lighter and grant moments of joy within the heaviness or negativity that can algorithmically dominate some social media channels and platforms. On the other hand, these memes can be jarring and constant reminders of trauma that is embedded within the humor."
As the world of memes stretches far and wide, who should be responsible for the ethics of sharing mental health memes? "Memes circulate so quickly and are largely anonymous or devoid of single authorship that it can be difficult to assign a specific set of ethical considerations to those generating memes," Dr. Burroughs explains. "Certainly, there are ethical considerations, for those who decide to circulate these memes and the platforms that facilitate the exchange."
Dr. Burroughs also says that the ethics of sharing mental health memes is kind of a gray area. "The difficulty is that meme circulation and reception can be highly contextual, and within that ambiguity, you don't want to lock down or eliminate ways that memes can be cathartic when it comes to mental health while not wanting to exacerbate trauma through memes," he tells Bored Panda.
In the end, Burroughs sees more positives than negatives. They are important because of their relatability element, and they can also educate people. "Mental health memes can be seen as ways to demystify and shed light on the struggles that those struggling with anxiety, for example, deal with on an everyday basis," he notes. "Mental health memes can also help those who don't have any experience or knowledge of these mental health issues and challenges to better understand what others are going through."
What are the potential dangers of mental health memes then? "The challenge is when the biting humor of memes might trivialize or diminish that experience rather than provide a reflexive space for enhanced sharing, learning, and understanding," Dr. Burroughs explains.
