The Rise of Viral Mental Health Meme’s.

In my Blog, “Are We Mainstreaming Mental Health“, I discussed the emerging presence of mental health memes on social media, and online as a whole. By now, you can probably tell that the common idea that I focus on in my blog posts is mental health, and that is because I am on my own journey with overcoming some of the biggest barriers in my own mind. So, with the topic of this week being “going viral” I wanted to analyze why exactly these meme’s have become more and more viral.

In his interview, Jonah Berger talks about the six things that make something go viral (spread online): social currency, triggers, emotion, public, practical value, stories. Immediately, two of these stand out to me to explain why mental health memes have made a bigger presence online: triggers and emotion. Many experts mention that the current generation is the generation with the most mental health issues. This is a very critical indicator and element to the rise of the mental health meme. When someone comes across a mental health meme, this triggers their feelings and thoughts about the topic portrayed in the meme. A common thing that I find myself doing is that when I see a meme about mental health on the internet, I try to relate myself to that meme. I ask myself “Is that what I am feeling?”, “Do I do this?”, “Is this how others view me?”. Triggers bring up things that you have either at the forefront of your mind or those that you have suppressed deep within your mind to save yourself from the pain that you feel from those memories. For me, it’s a mixture of both. Mental health has a very close connection to our emotions, so when see something that encapsulates the same emotions we feel, we make ourselves relate to it. When we relate to something, we have a better chance of sharing it.

In this post, ” ‘We have to laugh so we don’t cry’: The rise of viral mental health memes“, they say something very notable to me: “We have to laugh so we don’t cry”. This article does a great job in explaining everything important about mental health meme’s but it also indicates to me that mental health memes also have a practical value. The practical value of these memes are that they allow us to distract our minds from what we really thinking/feeling. They let us laugh about the sadness, worry, grief, etc. that we feel. It is something you can “use” as coping mechanism, and I know that many people including myself use these meme’s as a way to change my perspective on my current situation. Even though there is a fine line between funny and mockery, these meme’s can have a positive effect on those that need it the most.

Lastly, there is one element of mental health meme’s that I believe is overlooked and has a negative effect on the use of these memes on the internet. People are now using mental health meme’s as social currency. They post these meme’s and use the word’s “mental health” as an adjective to describe themselves because they want to feel included in a community that they’re not a part of. In the post I mentioned above, the following is included:

“…social media users can sometimes trivialize mental health issues — especially if they aren’t suffering themselves. ‘Since people use the [phrases associated with specific mental health issues] in their common language and not in the right way, people are beginning to use mental health issues as adjectives’ Meinster said.”

Duran, Andrea, and Sarah Malik. “‘We Have to Laugh so We Don’t Cry’: The Rise of Viral Mental Health Memes.” The Baltimore Watchdog, 12 Dec. 2019, baltimorewatchdog.com/2019/12/12/we-have-to-laugh-so-we-dont-cry-the-rise-of-viral-mental-health-memes/.

In my opinion, this is the biggest reason that people share mental health memes. They use it as a way of social currency to make other’s think they’re apart of community in which they do not belong. They feel that it it “trendy” to have mental health issues, and it mainstreams what is a very serious issue among teenagers and young adults.

Mental health meme’s are part of the current social media craze. Especially, now during the pandemic when we have seen a rise in the reported number of mental health issues. Mental health memes trigger our thoughts and emotions, provide a practical value, and unfortunately is being used as social currency. These meme’s are going to be around for a while, but it’s important to remember this issue is more than just the content of a meme, but the lives of other people. So I encourage you to be careful with what you share! Validation is one thing, but mockery is another.

**Disclaimer: I am not saying that mental health is an exclusive club. If you are struggling with mental health, reach out to those around you and get the help if you need it.**

What are your thoughts on this? Have you seen any meme’s about mental health that you think others should see? Post it below!