The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[Bedrockgames]

Probably comes from people who read all of those self help books written by people who are living garbage lives, but can definitely tell YOU how to live well, by spouting a ton of high falutin' words they don't understand, themselves.

Dropping ten dollar vocab to dazzle does seem the go to move of con men and modern lifestyle gurus. It is all over the place. I see a lot of people in the fitness world going crazily dangerous things for their bodies due to this kind of thing

 

[Ryujin]

Yes, for as much as people complain about the overuse of terms, like "OMG, I'm so OCD about my coffee", there's an argument to be made that it's actually a positive shift in attitude towards mental health. If I had to pick between OCD (as a random example) being stigmatized and not talked about or publicly discussed and occasionally used frivolously, I'll take the latter.

Normalizing mental health issues means people will talk about it normally. And metaphors and hyperbole are part of normal speech.

Normalizing is one thing, however, it runs the risk of trivializing same.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Yes, for as much as people complain about the overuse of terms, like "OMG, I'm so OCD about my coffee", there's an argument to be made that it's actually a positive shift in attitude towards mental health. If I had to pick between OCD (as a random example) being stigmatized and not talked about or publicly discussed and occasionally used frivolously, I'll take the latter.

Normalizing mental health issues means people will talk about it normally. And metaphors and hyperbole are part of normal speech.

I have OCD myself. OCD has almost become a separate slang term at this point. Like psycho. I think that is fine as the people aren’t invoking it to use the technical meaning and it is usually pretty clear they just mean they are super picky about their coffee. It is when terms like this are used as a rhetorical means to manipulate that I think it becomes a problem. Like in the original instance of toxic positivity mentioned where it is just used to stifle shy real dialogue

 

[Alzrius]

More importantly, while it is important to know your audience, you can't expect a person to self-censor their speech to take into account all the possible individual issues that any person reading (or listening) might have.

Very true. The sad thing is that some people still seem to expect everyone to do that, and are quick to castigate when they don't.

Such behavior should, I think, be referred to as "toxic inclusivity."

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Normalizing is one thing, however, it runs the risk of trivializing same.

This.

Look, when people use actual medical terms for mental illness for things that are not mental illness, it doesn't normalize mental illness; it trivializes it.

If someone is (say) bipolar, they aren't "moody." They aren't "emotional." And calling things that aren't that bipolar (or, ugh, "manic depression") trivializes the very real struggles of people struggling with an illness.

It's this type of facile connection that can be annoying.

 

[billd91]

I could hear my eyes rolling from the pointless pedantry of that post.

 

[Umbran]

Where were you when all those people were taking animal anti-parasite pills like they were Pez?

If I recall correctly, I was over in the Pandemic thread, taking about how this was stupid, and moderating those who gave medical disinformation. So... yeah.

 

[Scribe]

Yes, for as much as people complain about the overuse of terms, like "OMG, I'm so OCD about my coffee", there's an argument to be made that it's actually a positive shift in attitude towards mental health. If I had to pick between OCD (as a random example) being stigmatized and not talked about or publicly discussed and occasionally used frivolously, I'll take the latter.

Normalizing mental health issues means people will talk about it normally. And metaphors and hyperbole are part of normal speech.

Normalizing the discussion of mental health (and I'm not sure this is even being done in a positive way in the real world) is one thing, but trivializing and grossly mistaking the severity of what is being discussed, isnt helpful at all.

"I'm OCD about my coffee." - Some Hipster.

"Oh thats nice, my hands bleed every day because I sit in front of a sink for 3 hours every night washing my hands in hot water to avoid the doom my brain tells me will happen if I dont." - My Son.

These things are not the same. Even worse, the kids these days claiming its 'part of my identity' when its really just an attempt to be relatable on TikTok or whatever.

 

[Autumnal]

My advice is far too good for me to follow!

“I don’t practice what i preach because I’m not the sort of fellow I preach to.” - J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, Church of the Sub-Genius

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Normalizing the discussion of mental health (and I'm not sure this is even being done in a positive way in the real world) is one thing, but trivializing and grossly mistaking the severity of what is being discussed, isnt helpful at all.

"I'm OCD about my coffee." - Some Hipster.

"Oh thats nice, my hands bleed every day because I sit in front of a sink for 3 hours every night washing my hands in hot water to avoid the doom my brain tells me will happen if I dont." - My Son.

These things are not the same. Even worse, the kids these days claiming its 'part of my identity' when its really just an attempt to be relatable on TikTok or whatever.

It goes further than that. The US is facing a crisis related to inability to meet demand for mental health care. It is hard to even recruit professionals in even nearly sufficient numbers.

And it you have proximity or manage in such systems you will find many requests for evaluation for conditions that are quite uncommon in the population…but not social media.

TikTok has for example pathologized a lot of behavior that actually is very common. Fuzzy terminology as described previously and self appointed experts have convinced a significant number of people they have autism, adhd, dissociative identity disorder, ptsd etc. and it is not helping a drowning system.

It’s serious and impactful stuff actually…and it comes at a bad time when real need is further from being met.

The other thing you mention is spot on as well—-over identification with the problem. I have a depressive episode and now I am not “neurotypical” for life? Many with one depressive episode will only have one episode (thank goodness!).

You are a person with history of depression. Maybe. Unless you are convinced being sad for a few days after a disappointment is synonymous with depression and it’s now a label and…

I would listen to one of these hucksters analysis of my mental well being as much as I would someone telling me to make myself well by ingesting tide pods.

Though they do kind of look tasty. Hmmmm…would my wife miss a few?