Although we're all about positivity here at Bored Panda, sometimes even we have to get serious for a moment. Pages like Mental Illness and Memes are not about trivializing the struggles of mentally unwell people. They're about normalizing the topic and laughing together, not at something or someone.

The world is in a mental health crisis at the moment, and it doesn't seem the situation will be getting any better in the near future. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Queensland recently found that half of the world's population is likely to experience at least one mental health disorder in their lifetime.

Nowadays, it seems that we're more comfortable talking about our mental health struggles. As the number of people diagnosed with mental illness increases each year, so does the discourse about mental health. We're able to joke around about it or tell our loved ones when we're not feeling well.

Last year, the Pew Research Center asked people with whom they'd be most comfortable talking about their mental health struggles. The majority (57%) replied that a close friend would be their go-to person. The other top two answers were an immediate family member (52%) or a mental health provider (50%).

Age is one common denominator for people who struggle with depression in particular. In 2022, the Walton Family Foundation found that 42% of Gen Zers struggle with this condition. And a report by Harmony Healthcare IT claimed that 61% of Gen Z have a medical anxiety diagnosis.

Young people are also more open to talking about their mental health. Patrick Griswold, associate professor and clinical instructor in the the Human Services and Counseling Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver, says that's because it's hard to stigmatize something so widespread. "Therapy is now seen as beneficial, and as more people engage with it and find it helpful, the stigma continues to fade."

Although older people are opening up about their mental health too, Gen Z is 20% more likely than other generations to talk about their struggles. And the Internet offers a space to release these anxieties and troubles in the form of gallows humor. When experts at the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance talked to Gen Zers, they said that memes help ease the discomfort around serious mental health topics.

Some might say that joking about mental illness veers into dark humor territory. That might be true, but for Generation Z, it only makes sense to look at the world through lenses of absurdism and nihilism. The government's inability to deal with the climate crisis, school shootings, and socioeconomic inequality makes these the only acceptable ways to understand the world.

Gen Z also uses particular, jokey slang when talking about mental illness. A stay at a psychiatric hospital, for example, is called "a grippy sock vacation." A mental breakdown is referred to as "menty b" and has become commercialized, appearing on mugs, T-shirts, and other merchandise on Etsy and similar e-commerce platforms.

That's where the ugly side of joking about mental illness comes in. By making fun of their mental struggles, people might trivialize their own or others' conditions. Clinical psychologist Dr. Nicholas Westers told CNN that by using that kind of language, people distance themselves from their symptoms and are essentially doing nothing about them. "That reflects very little control over the distress and doesn't reflect any pursuit of healthy coping strategies."

Westers worries that using cutesy language to refer to serious mental health conditions and overinterpretation ("I'm so OCD", for example) could be just as dangerous as not talking about mental health at all. "It's possible that our culture is moving to the other extreme, where we're going to trivialize it and destigmatize it so much; everyone's going to talk about it using fun language."

As long as we understand that it's all in good fun, we shouldn't be in any trouble. So, how many of these memes did you find relatable, Pandas? Let us know in the comments! But don't fret if you haven't, as you can check our previous article about the Mental Illness and Memes page right here!