Online Trends : Romanticism Of Mental Illnesses

Illness is one of the few experiences that all humans have in common and generally is met with empathy. However, people who suffer from mental illness are not privy to this treatment. For centuries, mental disorders have been demonized and stigmatized even in the modern era where humans have a much better understand of the mechanisms of the mind. Before the advent of psychiatry in the eighteenth-century people believed that mental illness was actually demonic possession resulting in the ostracization and murder of the mentally ill in the name of God. The Victorian era was met with a different view of mental illness, in that it was understood that it was a malady of the mind and people needed constant medical treatment, thus federally mandated asylums were created. Since mental illness was not understood there was a lot of misconceptions and fear surrounding the field. It is no surprise that the master of macabre and the creator of Horror, Edgar Allen Poe, decided to explore themes of mental illness in his stories. Poe’s most famous story about mental illness was The Fall of the House of Usher, where the main characters are plagued with an undisclosed mental malady. Through Poe’s use of point of view, style, tone, and tropes, he painted a perfect picture of the Victorian view of the mentally ill and the mind of the artist which was believed to be different faces of the same coin.

Virtually all of us believe that we are in control of our lives but unconsciously the internet has managed to signification influence our actions, thoughts and beliefs. It has allowed us to think it’s normal to share our daily movements with our alleged followers, sharing our inner and deepest secrets; we are trying to make a lasting impression to the world while trying to seek external validation. Sometimes we compare our own lives to those of who we follow and become obsessed that our life doesn't live up to others, allowing us to create doubt in ourselves. Is it right that “girls seek comfort on social media when they are worried” rather than talking to her parents? No, it’s not! We as millions of us regularly seek external validation we leave the flood gates wide open for people to manipulate some vulnerable states of mind. The modern term associated with people that abuse the social network is – troll. “A troll in internet slang, is somebody who deliberately upsets others be starting arguments or posting inflammatory messages on blogs, chartrooms or forums” Therefore, the “anonymity of the internet is the perfect playground” for trolls, but we shouldn't let them prey on our vulnerability, we shouldn't succumb to the exploit they are trying to achieve. Trolls are experts on detecting your negativity and will play on that, knowing that you are anxious to

The purpose of this project is to explore the topic of mental health and wellness and ways to approach deconstructing negative stereotypes and convictions. The goal of this project is to research ways of improving the negative connotations of mental health and becoming informed on different mental disorders within society. Our lens for looking at different mental illnesses is through the main characters of the show entitled Winnie the Pooh. By contrasting favorite characters through a psychology perspective, we will highlight the significance of mental health, as well as the oftentimes unrecognized commonality of the illnesses in society. To further the conversation, this presentation will include a brief activity involving the placement pre-printed

It had been said by Reed, Cooper, Nugent, and Russel (2016) that, “Evidence supports that cyberbullying can contribute in the development of adolescent depression” (40). Those who are diagnosed with depression can be given medication to help cope, and although it is good for the pharmacies, it is not good for his or her mental health. With cyberbullying and social media effecting one’s mental health with depression and possible suicide, it is important that people know the correlation of the two.

Technology throughout its existence has improved the overall quality of life for many people around the world. Its impact is evident in our generation, where many people rely on technology to gain information on current events, increase work efficiency and even helping us understand ourselves. “Advances in neuroscience, technology and research sophistication have greatly increased understanding of mental illnesses and improved the treatment of these disorders.” (Wahl, 2011). Despite our knowledge on various mental illnesses, many individuals stray away from professional assistance due to the stigma that is attached to the illness; many individuals do not opt for help because they do not want a label attached to them. Social media is a huge platform that influences many people and the slandering that many media platforms do when they discuss the topic of mental illness is slowly increasing and is an issue that must be discussed.

In the Time article “Teen Depression and Anxiety: Why the Kids Are Not Alright,” the author, Susanna Schrobsdorff, discusses the current generation’s increase in mental health disorders, specifically anxiety and depression. Schrobsdorff states a major cause of these disorders is the generation’s inability to find a “firm line between their real and online world”. The article uses statistics from studies, and the experience of several human sources, to strengthen the authors claim and give real world perspective of how mental disorders affect not only the person with the mental disorder, but also their family.

Matthew Ring, a young teenager, was struggling with many depressing and anxious thoughts.After hiding these feelings for some time, he finally gathered the courage to tell his parents. This only allowed his family to recognize his anxious and depressive tendencies.his parents faced the questions of how social media would affect Matthew. Would it help him, or only make things worse? With 92 percent of teens going online every day, according to the Paw Research Center, Matthew used Instagram, the second most common social network site, to reach out to his peers. There he found that many other teens also struggle with the same depressive and anxious thoughts as him. Through making his account focused around supporting others in a positive way, Matthew shows his now over 6000 followers his message of hope.

Firstly, there have been significant links between our online presence and other aspects of our mental health, which has inspired the subject matter of many recent research studies around the world. There are many psychological and physical factors that affect our mental well-being due to the impact of social media. Depression and Body Dysmorphia being the leading causes, due to the content the individuals are exposed to while online. Even though researchers coined the correlation between social media use and depression as complex. Data was collected from a sample of 340 first year college students, and the findings were that the increase use of Facebook have been associated with higher levels of loneliness. Also the extensive use of Facebook has been associated with higher rates of disordered eating and body image insecurity.

Students who attend this seminar will witness a lecture about how the common ideas surrounding mental illness and the way in which is is described in the media are rarely factual. This includes a presentation detailing recent films and tv shows that are guilty of misrepresenting the mentally ill. What was the cause for these people to be portrayed as unusually violent when that could not be farther from the truth? Psycho and American Psycho are similarly titled films with similar messages: if you’re “crazy”, you’re also a homicidal maniac. With so few prominent works truly capturing what it means to be mentally ill, what can be done to rectify the error in the future? The

Communication barriers are not the only issue that has been brought on by social media. Extensive social media use has also been known to affect a person’s self-esteem. Some individuals suffer from a low self-esteem and limit themselves to social media in hopes to create a different image of them. According to Charles Cooley, “The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another's mind" (Morine, 2009). For some teens and young adults, social media may help them open up and achieve a higher self-esteem. On the other hand, social media on other teens and young adults may have a completely opposite effect. In an article titled, Is Facebook Making Your Child Depressed, it is stated that social media websites such as Facebook “can create a skewed reality that makes teens feel alienated” (PR, 2012). When a person, that is not completely happy with their life, goes onto social media and reads all about other people enjoying a multitude of activities and enjoying their lives this could

As a brand-new presentation of two classical types of factitious disorder known to cause individuals to overtly exaggerate or even feign disease, Munchausen syndrome (MS) and Munchausen by Proxy (MBP), the term “Munchausen by Internet,” or MBI for short, is an idiom that was originally proposed by Feldman (2000) in order to accurately depict the type of people prone to glorifying or even fantasizing about chronic illness or disability online – many of which who are willing to go to extremes to maintain or prove their image of chronic illness on social media. Although many things may be driving the behaviors of MBI offenders, the main attraction in pretending to be sick often pertains to the attainment of either attention, sympathy, acceptance,

In 2012, 12% of teen girls and 4% of teen males said that they experienced a major depression outburst within the past six months. Depression is the most common chronic illness and many people are accused as victimizing themselves (Wade). Those who turn to social media for support usually do not find it but are instead treated as a freak or as a person looking for attention (A2z). With 200,000 depression blogs it is hard to log on to Tumblr and not see signs of depression and self-harm on your dashboard. Instead of living in the moment, the blogs dread on things in the past and rarely show any sign of happiness in the life of the creator. On the other hand, Tumblr has realized the harm that the blogs pose to those suffering and have created anti-suicide blogs where bloggers can write to the creator and attempt to get help. Still, the anti-suicide blogs would not be necessary if the showing of the depression images were not glorified in the first place (Dewey).

Whether it is a natural talent or an acquired skill; writing allows artists to bring their creative expression to life. Interestingly enough, there is a widespread belief that some writers develop their creativity and knack for writing through suffering from a mental illness. This belief stems from past research based on the relationship between madness and creativity, especially in the writing field. Katherine M. Thomas and Marshall Duke wrote the article, Depressed writing: Cognitive distortions in the works of depressed and non-depressed poets and writers. Their article focuses on digging deeper into the relationship between madness and writing by making an in- depth analysis of writing samples from depressed writers versus the writing samples of those who weren’t. Duke and Thomas found that there is a need for analyzing works of writing because it may provide understanding in the relationship, which will lead to an understanding of depression and mental illness. Due to this widely known relationship, some may look at mental illness in a positive light. This relationship may cause people to look at the distortions as simply art; thus, diminishing the severity of mental illness. When looking at psychological distortions from an artistic perspective, this may remove the humanity of the writer; therefore; it is important to analyze and seriously look for the signs of cognitive distortions because it may help us understand and possibly distinguish the relationship between

“Susan Sontag has described the heyday of a “nihilistic and sentimental” nineteenth-​century logic that found appeal in female suffering: “Sadness made one ‘interesting.’ It was a mark of refinement, of sensibility, to be sad. That is, to be powerless.” This appeal mapped largely onto illness: “Sadness and tuberculosis became synonymous,” she writes, and both were coveted. Sadness was interesting and sickness was its handmaiden, providing not only cause but also symptoms. “The melancholy character was a superior one: sensitive, creative, a being apart,” she writes. Sickness was “a becoming frailty … symbolized an appealing vulnerability, a superior sensitivity, [and] became more and more the ideal look for women.”” (Jamison,

Writing has the power to allow you to communicate feelings and ideas with a large group of people, but many are unaware that writing also has a therapeutic quality. It is quite possible to use the act of writing to soften and heal your emotional difficulties. In addition, whilst you are healing, you may also inadvertently create some truly fantastic fictional content.