Author: Siddharth Dhaka
Have you seen those images popping in your social media feed where more often than not you’d see a girl with messed up hair and peeping into nothingness? Well, if you have, then you must have also noticed the captions attached to these saying- ‘When anxiety hits’ or ‘My coffee and depression’, and so on.
These kinds of pictures have become the trend for today’s generation, especially among women because of the way it appeals to them. Now wait, there isn’t any kind of sexism attached here because obviously not all women perceive it that way just like some men, wait there, most of the men, love hiding it. The fact is that the one who’s actually depressed never knows about it and the one who isn’t loves to put it in public a bit too much. And it’s not just the pictures but a couple thousand videos on YouTube where you’ll see women discussing about their panic attacks, depression etc. and if that wasn’t enough, they go at great lengths discussing how they fought through it and became the person they are today, be it in terms of success, money, behavior or whatever appeals to them.
Again, I don’t say that all of these stories are false or just for the sake of putting up an in-trend video. What I mean is that anything that’s heard a bit too much about in public has the potential to be celebrated, turned and twisted in every way possible. People are also very prompt in catching these; you know it’s the era of influencers. The stories of many famous entrepreneurs, writers, actors, singers, etc who have actually faced misery and depression have the power to surface in the media but people need to get that not everything is content for trends and being trendy.
Amidst all the noise, are lost some true and heart wrenching stories which cannot predict an ending. Sometimes, there is a false depiction of mental illness just for the sake of making it appear beautiful or a certain type of way. The trend of romanticizing mental illness needs to be stopped. It can leave the youth paranoid for nothing, making them question every obstacle that comes their way, diminishing the practical picture of life.
