Even better news is that these mental health memes seem to be therapist-approved. “I love mental health memes,” said therapist Greta MacMillan in a Simple Practice Monarch article. “I follow so many accounts.” She even shares these memes with her clients because she believes that it’s a great way to get important information out there. 

Clients may also leave therapy sessions uncertain of how to act upon the advice they’ve received during it, as there’s quite a lot of detailed information shared. MacMillan reckons that therapy memes can help make complicated topics easier for people to digest.

”When I was in my twenties, none of this was out there,” she adds.

MacMillan thinks that it would’ve been helpful to be able to go online and instantly connect with people who share such tough experiences. Now it has become possible to meet people by interacting with mental health memes, as the pages that post them have morphed into a kind of support group.

Therapist Minon Maier, LMFT, shares that her clients find them helpful as well.

“I have found that many teens and young adults benefit from mental health memes. Most teens are brought to therapy by parents, not necessarily their own choice, and being able to talk about memes is helpful in validating and normalizing their experience.”

Maier mentions that there are times when clients share memes during sessions to assist them in articulating their feelings better. She says that this can be a great way to build trust with them and address any underlying emotions, needs, or wants.

“I’ve found that I’m able to help clients process at a deeper level because the meme has opened a door to underlying hurts,” she explains. “So, when clients share a meme with me, I feel honored that they trust me.” 

Therapist Jessica Angley, LPC, points out that memes shouldn't be used as a replacement for therapy. “But, that said, I appreciate the memes directed at people in therapy.”

She believes that such memes can help lessen the stigma around mental health and therapy. People seeing others seeking treatment and being able to relate to their reasons might accept the need to reach out to someone more easily.

She has also received mental health memes from clients who wanted to communicate about important topics.

Angley shares, “A client once sent me a meme about their therapist asking them if they're taking their meds. It gave me an opening to ask if she was taking hers, and she wasn't! The meme had given her a way to start that conversation with me.”

However, she further warns that some darker meme accounts can become unhelpful as they step into self-deprecation territory. “When we get into the realm of self-deprecation, that's where the laughs stop for me,” she explains. Angley herself has unfollowed several of them to protect her own mental well-being. 

Something she finds additionally alarming is when people send memes to notify people that they aren’t doing their best. “I saw one meme that said something like ‘The number of mental health memes I share is inversely correlated with the quality of my mental health,''' she explains. “For some people, sharing mental health memes can be a low-key way of signaling that they're not doing well and that they could use a friend.” 

Even though it might be difficult to reach for help when a person is in pain, Angley doesn’t recommend using memes to communicate with friends or relatives when they are struggling. 

As online discussion can exclude some nuances of certain situations, MacMillan emphasizes that it’s important to be cautious and not accept all social media meme posts and comments as truth. “Not everyone who interacts with a mental health meme may truly understand or respect the experience it's depicting,” she notes.

However, ultimately, she concludes that the benefits of mental health memes outweigh the negatives.