Mental Health Stigma and the Cult of Positivity

today we’re at a crossroads in our

cultural relationship with mental health

all of us have a unique opportunity to

engage with others

with authenticity and in a way that

reduces

mental health stigma and supports

well-being

we’ve come a really long way as a

culture in terms of normalizing

help seeking for mental health concerns

but

worry about the perception of others

continues to be

one of the most important reasons why

individuals who need help don’t get it

what we know is that stigma is one of

the most frequently reported barriers to

treatment initiation

for all kinds of mental health and

substance use concerns

no matter who we ask or how we ask them

it comes up over and

over again that therapy is good for

other people for troubled people for

damaged people but not for me personally

and it becomes a barrier to treatment

seeking

for all kinds of mental health concerns

internalized stigma that is believing at

least on some level

that the stories that we tell ourselves

about a marginalized group

are true impacts how we think about

ourselves

and how we think about our mental health

mental health stigma

or the perception that people who

struggle with mental health concerns

or who seek mental health help are crazy

bad or dangerous is really problematic

the stigma is pervasive in our culture

and it shows up in how we talk about

mental health

phrases like he’s crazy or that’s crazy

it shows up in how the media talks about

mental illness

when there’s a dangerous gunman out on

the loose our immediate thought is that

he must be crazy

people who are out of control or who

make poor decisions are

often referred to as crazy anyone who’s

a threat to the public

in the media their mental health comes

up

the ways that we interact with one

another both in person

and on social media are influenced both

by mental health stigma

and in the internalized stigma we hold

for ourselves

imagining that we are part of this

marginalized group

so when someone begins to think about

mental health treatment to do so

they need to associate themselves with

people in a stigmatized category

that i could be not that far away from

all those so-called crazy people in the

media or on social media

this is one of the biggest barriers to

treatment seeking

a huge part of this evolves on social

media

how we present ourselves on social media

and how we talk about mental health and

social media

in my own research on expectations about

psychotherapy

i asked people what they thought about

counseling what they sought from

counseling

and over and over again they say they

want to learn more about what’s normal

in mental health

and worry about whether or not they and

their behavior

are normal this is one of the indicators

of how pervasive

internalized stigma is that even

individuals who have already made the

decision to enter into therapy

worry that i or their therapist or

people around them

will think that there’s something wrong

with them

part of this is a problem in language we

use the same words to talk about

someone who is severely mentally ill

and someone who experiences a transient

mild sort of thing this

mis-specification in language is really

problematic

right if we said respiratory distress

for

everything from a little mild exercise

induced asthma

to someone who’s literally on a

ventilator in a hospital

it would create a lot of confusion

around the term respiratory distress

that’s essentially what we’ve done with

mental illness or

mental health because of

misspecification

we’ve created a lack of clarity this

doesn’t work for us

and leads to the minimization and

miscategorization of mental health

concerns

because once again when we have

internalized stigma

we are hesitant to associate ourselves

with a marginalized group

and so we see everything from that

little bit of anxiety or that little bit

of depression we

experience as a normal part of life

is associated with what we see in the

media

as crazy or disturbed all of this taken

together is internalized stigma

we begin to identify with marginalized

groups when we’re struggling with our

mental health

and that’s scary there’s a natural

attempt to push that away

and to make distinctions between us and

the marginalized group

to say we’re somehow different or better

recently experts have identified stigma

promoting behaviors and language

across social media platforms one

insidious and well-meaning way that

stigma is promoted through social media

is in pressure to be positive or to look

on the bright side

something that people have called toxic

positivity or

the cult of positivity it perpetuates

this idea that we should be

mentally tough enough to overcome any

difficulty we have

so that we can create separation between

us

and those members of the marginalized

and stigmatized group

the dark side of the good vibes only

trend

is toxic positivity toxic positivity is

the excessive and ineffective over

generalization

of a happy and optimistic state that

results

in the minimization and invalidation of

the authentic

human emotional experience

now i’m not possible pessimistic quite

the opposite actually

but when positivity is used to cover up

minimize or deny experiences

it’s really unhealthy for us and worse

promotes stigmatizing language and

behavior

on popular social media platforms this

emerges in our content

things like no bad vibes and memes

related to

positivity it evolves in our responses

to others

where there’s a failure to acknowledge

problems or difficulties

and instead encourage people to look on

the bright side

or buck up it also evolves in the way

that we use gas lighting

and minimization in really well-meaning

ways

but things like saying first world

problems or

other ways of minimizing difficulty

the very nature of mental illness and

mental health concerns is that you can’t

think your way out of it

on some level most people who struggle

with their mental health

are aware that what they’re doing isn’t

healthy

but the very core of mental illness

is that you can’t think your way out of

it you can’t reason your way out of it

and so as much as we have evolved as a

society in terms of how we think about

mental health

there’s this moral or cognitive failing

narrative

that’s alive and well and perpetuated in

the cult of positivity on social media

this cultural positivity is really

problematic for us because it leads to

dismissing emotions

feeling guilty for having negative

emotions and it minimizes experience

gaslights difficult experiences and

leads to shame and judgment

that we internalize as stigma and what

that does is it reinforces a shame and

blame

cycle that contributes to the idea that

if people just tried

hard enough mental illness would be gone

taking together all of this contributes

to stigma around mental health

and hope seeking for mental health

concerns

we know now that this is particularly

damaging to teens and young adults

and so there’s been a lot of emphasis on

breaking the stigma

to break the stigma surrounding mental

health help seeking behavior

we need to address all the ways in which

stigma emerges

including those that are well-meaning by

openly addressing the cult of positivity

we can reduce stigma

and promote healthy behaviors related to

mental health

all right so how do you know you’re

doing it so you know you’re doing it

if you find yourself hiding your true

feelings and creating a social media

self

we’ve often heard about that idea that

what we present on social media is the

polished or beautiful version

of ourselves and feeling

this sense of having to do that having

to hide true feelings

because people would judge or dislike

you

for being real you’re doing it

you’re also doing call to positivity

when you feel shame or guilt for having

feelings

or minimizing your own or other people’s

experience with feel-good quotes

now i know it’s meant to be

inspirational but sometimes that feels

like minimizing and it’s really

problematic

another way in which cultural positivity

emerges in well-meaning ways

is trying to give other people

perspective like

it could be worse or look on the bright

side or

it’s a first world problem instead of

validating the authenticity of the

experience

the last big tip off that you’re engaged

in the cult of positivity

is that you’re shaming yourself or other

people for not being able to

shake it off or get over a disturbance

so how can you be a positive support

because i think that’s the pathway

becoming a positive support on social

media and in your interactions with

other humans

is one way that we can all contribute in

a meaningful way

to the reduction of mental health stigma

first thing it starts with yourself

empathy and authenticity with yourself

really embracing all of the feelings

that are part of an authentic human

experience and that includes

some difficult feeling sometimes

taking that authenticity then into the

people that you love

being your real self and experiencing a

range of human emotions around the

people that you care about

next extend that into how you offer

acceptance and validation for others

so acceptance and validation is finding

the kernel of truth in what people say

or finding a way to identify the core

emotional experience

we don’t have to agree that everyone is

having the worst day ever

and we don’t have to become pessimistic

but we need to validate

the authenticity of an emotional

experience if something is

struggling and in it they’re in it

whether you think it’s real or not and

it’s really critical to validate

and accept that emotional experience

regardless of where it came from

finally figuring out ways to offer

support to help your friends and family

to find their own solution

when we accept and validate other people

it helps them to feel empowered

and we can offer the opportunity to

stand with people

as they go through their struggles or to

support them as they build their own

solutions

all of these things come from a place of

authenticity

and connection and when we deal with

each other

with authenticity with connection and

with support

we can make our important contribution

to reducing mental health stigma

and creating a society that validates

emotional experiences

whatever they are thank you