this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
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Mental Health
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Can we flip it? I think its prior to now people have been ignoring what the problems actually are.
Speaking as an actual therapist both are true
Some people have their experiences minimized through others using language to make them feel that what they went through was insignificant. Sometimes this is directly malicious (eg an abuser downplaying what they’ve done) and sometimes indirectly malicious (eg someone unrelated to the event accusing them of being dramatic), but it is generally always harmful
Some people feel the need to maximize their experiences through inflammatory language. There are many reasons for such a thing: sometimes it is innocuous and due to a poor understanding of terminology (eg what constitutes trauma). Sometimes it is malicious as well and the person aims to be manipulative or gain attention.
These are also not mutually exclusive and a person from one category can exist within the other. I have worked with cases for example where someone is healing from trauma but plays up minor issues that occur later on because they have created an illogical belief structure that they have to be damaged to gain love and approval. For some people they first find sympathy, empathy, and attention by opening up about their trauma to others and then end up in a position where they are unsure about how to engage in deep social connections going forward without connecting over damage.
As with most things we do ourselves disservice by over generalizing the situation and removing nuance. Mental health philosophy and treatment is not something that you describe in 120 characters. That’s why credible sources write books and articles on the subject, not fucking tweets and youtube shorts that oversimplify things to a cool sounding sound byte or easily digestible webcomic or whatever
Very true, and i agree with what youre writing. I definitely see both sides here. Ive learnt alot regarding mental health over the past few years after having people close to me dealing with it (in both good and bad ways).
I see that my comment can make it look like im oversimplifying the issue, so im happy you took your time to elaborate. To be more precise i think we have historically been more prone to have our experiences downplayed, either to cope or ill intent and i think this has acted as a precursor to the mental health issues we see today. I think todays trends of toxic masculinity, sexism and misogony are all closely related to how we percieve and handle mental health today. At the same time we've normalized a crazy work ethic and work environments which torment us daily.
I probably have a lot of things i want to say but have a hard time putting it into words right now. To summarize, mental health is indeed a way more complex issue than can be summarized in a few paragraphs. I think all of us would benefit from seeing a therapist, i probably should aswell. I do think that my initial comment is more aimed towards how previous generations have handled their situations. Which then let that behaviour live on without much self reflection and by extension affecting the peoples, society and environment of today.