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why do people glorify depression, self harm, and eating disorders?
I'm done with it. It's a terrible message for people suffering from this stuff.
Reality of depression: a mental disorder caused by bullying, abuse, etc where the victim can't feel happy, and is always sad. This person needs to get help and heal.
What it is showed as: an emo kid who is a very shy and misunderstood, a great trait where the amazing emo is deep and poetic. This person should continue on with it because it's romantic and beautiful.
Reality of self harm: something extremely serious, caused by something so intense and traumatizing the victim wants to end his own life. This person needs help (right fucking now)
What it is showed as: something an emo kid does, where he "paints a picture, the razor is a brush and the wrist a canvas. This person should kill themselves because they are " an angel who wants to go home"
Reality of anorexia: a very dangerous and serious mental disorder where one is obsessive about loosing weight, driven by insecurities. This person needs to see a food therapist. Right fucking now. It makes them look very ugly and disturbing.
What it is shown as: something an emo kid does (always coming back to emos) where they loose weight and act sad, driven by wanting to be pretty. This person needs to write "not thin enough" on their stomach and post it on tumblr. It makes them look sexy and mysterious.
Why?
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Maybe give some free advice about: Mental health?
I think that a lot of people say this as a way to deal with their mental problems, they make it sound like something they should be proud of so that they don't feel so insecure about having these problems. When people say ''he paints a picture, the razor is the brush and his wrist is a canvas'' because it makes self-harm sound less embarrassing to them, the same way people say that 'scars are beautiful', it's so that they see their scars not as imperfections but as a part of them.
You see, even though it seems extremely weird to you and a lot of others, everyone has different ways of dealing with mental illness, and some people just need to know that they are not alone and that being mentally ill doesn't make them 'strange' or 'ugly'. It's a way of dealing with things, a way of making things sound better than they are. That's the way I see it, anyway.
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Why do we glorify Romeo and Juliet? It's the story of a 20 year old guy falling in love with a 14 year old and then they both kill themselves because their families wont let them bone. It's sick.
The thing is you are totally right. We, as human beings, romanticize stories and images that are objectively horrific. Sometimes we do it in the name of love, other times beauty. Some of the greatest stories ever told are actually horrible stories. Many of our 'heros' are actually people we should NEVER try to be like. Comic books lend us great examples of things that are good stories, but would be horrible realities. Like Batman, or even Iron Man. When you think about it they are actually terrible people who are horrible to others, subvert democracy around the world, and out right steal, destroy and overpower the people less powerful then them.
It's important that we are free to tell stories that are bad. It's important that we write poetry, and sing songs about horrible things. Even romanticizing those horrible things. It's an important part of the human experience, and communicating with one another.
Of course, other times, we do it because our thinking is off. A lot of what you've described here is a either a mental illness, or a behaviour based in disordered thinking. You can't understand it, because the thoughts behind are not rational.
It's can be tough to tell the difference between someone telling a story, or exploring an idea, and someone who is mentally ill, but it is important to try and respect people, even if their thinking is disordered, or if you think they are glorifying something bad.
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I can see what you mean. Taking genuinely distressing psychiatric conditions and misappropriating them in order to make oneself sound interesting/romantic/sexy/troubled/misunderstood/artistic/mystical/mysterious (etc...) is not good. It undermines, trivialises and devalues the 'genuine article', as you might call it. And causes offence to the genuine sufferer. They should not be used to justify just plain antisocial behaviour, or misappropriated by youth cults because it fits into the 'image' they wish to project. People with eating disorders and those who self-harm 'for real' (if you like) often go to great lengths to disguise the fact, not post labelled pictures on facebook/tumblr etc. And often people with severe depression won't admit even to themselves that they are. That's the nature of things. Now we come to why? Why should anyone wish to feign and fake a condition like the personal 'hell on earth' of depression? Or self-harming? I guess it's that transient phase in our teens where we want to rebel, identify with something and indeed wish to project ourselves as interseting/sexy/mysterious (etc...see above!). You have to wonder if our consumer-led and obsessed 'culture of commodoties' has got to the point where it even needs to make fashionable and 'sell' psychitaric disorders to people. We make a right cynical pair don't we?!!! Try not to judge your emo's too harshly mate. It's a youth cult. It's their identifier and 'badge of honour' as you might say, to be turbulent/troubled/romantic (etc...see above again!). So of course they'll want to wear the badge. Peer-group pressure, the need to idnentify and conform, can be remarkably powerful and engaging. You're just an old cynic who won't buy into it!!! So might we say that while it remains just an expression (wearing the tee-shirt and ostensibly embracing the required attitudes and opinions)it's probably harmless? It fills a need while it's current but it will be all fogotten with the onset of properly adult life?
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