At the peak of quarantine, mental health had shown drastic decline among youth around the world. As isolation protocols became stricter, the numbers of teenagers turning to social media increased, as an alternative for social interaction. TikTok, the fast-growing internet platform grew in usage around the same time as the COVID-19 spike, going hand in hand. With the isolation, more and more youth suffered from the confinement, and resorted to social media to share their mental health struggles. When more people began to grow comfortable voicing their stories, it became heavily normalized to “have something wrong with you.” In some cases, it seemed as though it was stigmatized to not suffer from any mental health conditions at all.
Humans desire a sense of belonging, and when poor mental health is promoted for those who can find solace in relating to one another, it also attracts people who want to share those struggles. Regardless of actually suffering from or being diagnosed with a mental disorder, many people, having seen the relatability of being “different” began to romanticize being mentally ill.
A recurring habit of many people of this generation is to alter something to seem more attractive than it really is—in other words, romanticizing it. The wide-known truth is that mental health is not something to be taken lightly, and those who suffer from the effects of such an exhausting issue understand that it’s not something to desire. Whether it be for attention, pity, or simply to fit in, there have been many examples of making mental illnesses more enticing than it actually is. In reality, the increasing numbers of youth diagnosed with mental health disorders has risen tremendously, and because of its normalization, many begin to view the topic with rose colored glasses.