Why is everything about MH these days?

[JaneFondue]

I am really tired of the way everyone is constantly talking about their mental health journey, even in professional areas.

I needed to hire a photographer for a conference. Was recommended someone by a friend. Her professional page is all about her mental health journey, her 'depression' after every shoot, her existential angst. No information about prices, packages, testimonials. I didn't hire her but why would anyone?

Not the first time I have seen inappropriate mentions of MH. So many young people appear to splash it across their social media profiles. It just makes me wary of hiring them.

In business context this sort of emotional/psychological incontinence is really off-putting, I agree.

I also think as a society we’ve gone too far from stiff upper lip to ridiculous levels of navel-gazing introspection. There should be a happy medium.

Idle minds/hands are the devil’s playground and all that.

Mainly just people making up excuses about how they conduct themselves. It’s okay to be depressed or anxious but it’s not okay to have psychosis or any form of severe and enduring mental Illness. No, no, that’s definitely not okay.

People are encouraged to talk about and without being judged. Generally people are empathetic.

Another way of looking at it is that misery loves company.

I think obviously locksdowns covid has obviously highlighted the bleeding 🙄 obvious that everyone has emotions,

It's like before Covid/Lockdowns society was unaware of this reality,

I think Society before thought people are like Robots 🤖 🤔
That everyone so often needs a re boot kick being frustrating at , like a faulty malfunctioning machine,
that is not working at its full capacity and is therefore not working effectively so hence not up to scratch,

Until Judgemental society or person has Crap shit misfortune in their lives,
they obviously see reality differently with new perspectives,

And society has had epiphany about this,

Of course their is healthy balanced to be had,
Pendulum needs to swing to and fro at

Emotional incontinence is the exact term. But I wonder if I am simply out of step with modern workplace etiquette.

Agree OP

especially if I'm approaching a professional, I don't want to know.
I've hidden it for decades and always will
I hate the constant oversharing of personal info

Everyone has emotions even if their indenial about certain ones like Anger, envy ect,

Even emotions that society frowns upon ,

If used constructly Anger gives passion to seeking justice ⚖️ human rights

Bit of envy if used constructively can make you aware you deserve better , for e.g if someone is in a shit relationship with a shit joke of a partner and their friend is an obviously better relationship with someone else,
Bit of Envy can be the incentive to get rid of shit Arsehole Partner and to address issues of why acctracted to shit partner, then later down the line to meet someone better as a Partner

You are not. There are many middle managers up and down the country tearing their hair out because various self-diagnosed conditions make staff tardy, unable to work today, finding it too stressful to make phone calls etc.

As a now retired mental health nurse I find it almost amusing the way everyone now feels they have to tell everyone about their mental health, I spent years trying to tell people it was ok to talk about it and nothing to be ashamed of, now you can’t get people to stop

I also think as a society we’ve gone too far from stiff upper lip to ridiculous levels of navel-gazing introspection. There should be a happy medium

Totally agree

Absolutely agree OP. I've had depression for many years and it can be utterly miserable at times, but it's something I have to manage. The endless introspection and oversharing of incredibly personal information is bizarre - I suppose it's to do with this whole self-identification, where people feel they have to have something with a name in order to belong to some sort of tribe where everyone can speak at length about their something.

Totally agree, I actually really miss stiff upper lip.

in other news, I feel we may have been joined by ChatGPT....

in other news, I feel we may have been joined by ChatGPT....

It’s okay, it didn’t pass the Turing test 🤭

I thought I was the only person to feel MH is all that's talked about and I know it's frowned upon to pour scorn on it. But surely everyone suffers from some sort of MH symptoms?

I think MH issues are synonymous with being an adult these days - every other person I know is on anti depressants.

I hate this type of stuff. Makes me feel queazy when I read it. It's very American and Hollywood.

Agree - tbh MN is terrible for this, so many people cite poor MH on their posts when a lot of the time it's just run of the mill feeling a bit gloomy now and then.

I completely agree. I don't think the constant talking about MH is helping people because it drags everyone down. It's fine to feel it and share it with your nearest and dearest but putting it on your business Instagram? No thanks!

Funnily enough, I spotted someone on Instragram the other day who has changed career/set up her own business in the last year or so. Every post was talking about how much she lacked confidence in treading her new path. How she wasn't sure if she was good enough to be doing what she's doing and how she compares herself to everyone else. I can't see how that would inspire confidence in her customers! At the end of the day, she makes stuff and sells it. If people like what they see they will use her. Talk about overthink it!!!

Completely off topic but I have also found that egg freezing is the new trend with the Z listers, they are all at it!

Honestly? I think it's just a myriad of different expressions of loneliness.

I think we are living through really destabilizing times. We are a communal animal with an increasingly invisible community. It's no good for us. Like putting the penguins in the lion enclosure and wondering why they won't thrive.

Re mental health, my feeling is that at some point in your life you are gonna go through shit which causes some mental struggles. Having been through an awful time myself which impacted me physically I can understand how bad it can get and the need for support. But I also wonder if some people just jump on the bandwagon.

Everyone has mental health, just the same as everyone has physical health, don’t they? Sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down. I thought that was just called life.
Obviously anything severe enough to affect the way you live needs intervention but just as you can treat yourself for physical illness without going to the GP every time, you can do the same for mental health. Or maybe I see everything too simplistically?

I think it’s essential to talk about MH. People being more aware both that it exists, that others around them are struggling is a really good thing.
And I suspect that some people get dragged down by hearing people talking about it because they are struggling themselves. It certainly works that way for me.

However, I don’t think that it belongs to a professional website unless there is some relationship with it.
And there is an issue with with friends and emotional dumping. Now we all like and sometimes just need a rant. But as usual there are boundaries to respect. It’s just that before people were ranting and now they say they are MH issues.

Fwiw I feel that society as a whole and the way we live nowadays has a huge impact on MH. And there us a question to ask on whether, as a society, we are not creating those MH issues. In which case, it’s even more essential to talk about it.

I think a big problem is that it’s almost become ‘trendy’ to say you have MH problems. A lot of the time what they are describing isn’t true anxiety, depression etc.
It then ends up watered down and trivialised for the people who really suffer these conditions.

I agree OP.

I work in a very arty field and the number of people I come across (mainly much younger than me, but not always) who like to over share in what I would consider an unprofessional way always surprises me. If I were an Art director looking to hire it would definitely put me off.

Obviously good mental health is very important and I wouldn't judge someone who struggles, but I do wonder why some people are keen to share their mental health struggles, but not so much say their haemorrhoid struggles 😂

I suspect some people (incorrectly IMO) view mental health struggles as bit 'sexy' and 'creative genius-esque'. A modern day tortured artist type thing. I bet people who do have serious MH issues (eg anorexia) aren't shouting it from the roof tops.

It's not just mental health struggles either I'm bored of all the professional bio's I read about peoples sexuality, dietary preferences even political allegiances. Why would you need to know any of that about your graphic designer ?

None of this is relevant to how well you can do your job and work with other people. If I'm commissioned to work with a design team I'm not interested in anything other than how competent and nice to work with they are.

I think it's the natural progression of identity politics and an unhealthy intolerance of anyone different from 'your tribe'.