Mental illness memes are not funny!

Mental illness memes are not funny!Mental illness memes are not funny!

Who creates these things? Oh.. that’s right, people who have never experienced mental illness before. I get that some people use humour to help deal with their illness. I am also one of those people, but I think there is a limit to how far you go. I have witnessed catastrophic incidents from people seeing posts like these, not ones I have posted of course, but posts that give people great anxiety and discomfort from triggering content that is being used as some kind of punchline. Mental illness is not funny. Slipping on a banana skin is funny, sneeze farting is funny, knocking items off a shelf is funny, but mental illness is not funny. It is serious. It is a ruiner of lives and destroyer of dreams. It is never funny.

 
Social media is powerful. It can share one single post around the world within just minutes. Imagine millions of young people seeing those so-called funny memes. Imagine those young people feeling like they cannot talk to anyone about their mental health without the fear of someone laughing at them because they think it’s hilarious that they want to die. Imagine how many people have contemplated their life because they don’t feel like society is taking them seriously. I can tell you now that if we all shared just one powerful and positive message about mental health and its ‘victims’ we can change an entire thought process of a future generation. Mental illness needs to be treated seriously, we as a generation need to treat it seriously. Share the positive posts about getting help for those struggling most, give support to those in need, be the shoulder to cry on. But don’t be the comedian using mental illness as your punch line.