The scale of what they are helping with is a little sobering. In the UK alone, more than 8 million people are experiencing an anxiety disorder at any one time, and one in six people are affected by depression. Both conditions carry an isolation that compounds the original experience, partly because finding the words for them is genuinely difficult.
Previous research found that 47% of college students reported engaging with internet memes specifically to alleviate psychiatric symptoms, with self-deprecating humor allowing them to laugh at their problems and connect with others going through the same thing.
That said, this content is not universally helpful, and the researchers are honest about that. Whether mental health memes are good for you specifically comes down to your own reaction to them. If they make you laugh, affirm something you have been carrying alone, or make you feel less like the only person in this particular situation, they are working.
If they upset you, trigger rumination, or make things heavier rather than lighter, they are not for you right now, and that is a completely valid conclusion to reach. The page exists for the people it helps, and the emergency exit is on your left if you need it.
Do you use memes like this to cope? Tell us why in the comments!
