** There are some painful clincher and topic sentences, so I understand if you aren't able to bear it.
Imagine yourself on your phone, scrolling down your social media feed. You see pictures of your friends hanging out, landscapes and uplifting quotes. But then you see a picture that confuses you. The photo is in black and white, with a beautiful girl in the center, surrounded by a frame made of roses. However, upon closer examination, you see a razor, drops of blood, and a bottle of drugs, all next to the girl’s feet. The girl’s face is contorted in agony, her cheeks artfully streaked with mascara, and at the bottom of the photo there is a short quote, put in a pretty font: “I want to die a lovely death”. This photo is one of the many images shared within online communities that glamorize and romanticize depression and self-harm. The glorification of depression and self-harm by these online communities is dangerous and needs to be counteracted.
Depression is a serious mental illness and needs to be treated as so. Believed to be caused by various factors, depression includes the following traits: persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, diminished interest in activities, fatigue, thoughts of suicide/suicide attempts, and changes in diet and sleeping patterns(NIMH;Wolff 14). To rehabilitate, most people take antidepressants and go to psychotherapy(NIMH). Although depression is more understood than it used to be, many people still trivialize it, leaving its victims with shame. They grow to believe that they should be able to “shake it off” on their own (Hartman). But, truly, recovery from this illness requires taxing work, support, and motivation for change (NIMH). In short, depression is a serious illness that affects the quality of people’s lives considerably.
Depression is especially harmful in teens, since they are still in their developmental stage. In recent years, depression has become more abundant in teens, especially in girls. Between 2008 and 2010, 12 percent of teenaged girls suffered from a major depressive episode, which is three times higher than the rate of their male counterparts (4%) (Bine). A major depressive episode is defined as a combination of symptoms that interfere with a person's ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy once-pleasurable activities (NIMH). So, on top of having to deal with the daily stresses of being a teenager, depressed teens have to deal with symptoms that keep them from functioning normally. Additionally, depression in teens frequently co-occurs with other disorders such as anxiety, eating disorders, self-mutilation, or substance abuse (NIMH), making the illness even more harmful. Furthermore, most people who have depression in adolescence will have it and, sometimes, the added disorder recur or persist into adulthood (NIMH). Because teens are still growing, depression (and the accompanying disorders) can set life-long patterns that are damaging.
Though depression is a serious illness, there are online communities that glorify it, and particularly encourage self-mutilation and suicide. Remember the photo described earlier in which a girl is implied to have cut herself? There are blogs that are dedicated solely to posting similar pictures, as well as poems,quotes and music that describe self-mutilation and depression as mysterious, romantic, and beautiful. This content is aimed mainly at teenage girls. According to SimilarWeb, an analytics firm that tracks aggregate web data, about 200,000 of these self-harm blogs are on Tumblr (Dewey).Tumblr’s format allows this content to be shared easily, thus, leading to more people seeing and being inspired by said content. These online communities, and the subculture they reflect, have confused destigmatizing depression with romanticizing it (Hartman). They have turned being depressed and harming yourself something to which one should aspire. Depression and self-harm shouldn’t be something people are ashamed of, but it certainly shouldn’t be encouraged either.
Blogs that portray being depressed and harming one’s self in an appealing light are incredibly dangerous. Like most people, teens with depression and/or who harm themselves want a sense of community. Blogs that post content that prettify depression and self-harm can provide exactly that (Bine). Even teens who do not have any sort of mental illness take part in this subculture because it provides such an immense sense of belonging.These online communities are mostly non judgemental and would be helpful, if only they didn’t encourage harmful behaviors.This subculture reinforces a mindset that people with depression and who harm themselves should just continue suffering through it all, with the pretext that the suffering is “beauteous”. Furthermore, the idealization of self-mutilation on these blogs can “trigger” relapses in recovering self-harmers(Dewey) because the blogs overlook the unhealthy consequences of these acts. Knowing the consequences of self-mutilation may have prevented teens in recovery from harming themselves, and would probably prevent other teens from “jumping on the bandwagon”.Obviously, this subculture does not help people with depression or who hurt themselves get better. So, despite this sub-culture’s allure, these blogs can be damaging to those who are trying to rehabilitate and other vulnerable teens.
Realizing the negative effects of these online communities, there are organizations that are trying to counteract them. To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA), an anti-suicide organization, publishes feel good testimonials and illustrations that promote healthy living and rehabilitation (Dewey). Similarly, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) has recruited writers to post nice, uplifting messages on Tumblr, but tack on hashtags like “cutting” or “suicide” so self-harm bloggers, specifically, can see them (Dewey). And Benjamin Van Vorhees, head of pediatrics at the University of Illinois Children’s Hospital and leader of a multimillion dollar study of the internet-based depression intervention, envisions a primary treatment program that combines phone and internet-based counseling with moderated, peer-to-peer networking, which would allow teens to still have that sense of community (Dewey). People who harm themselves and/or who have depression need emotional support and affirmations of rehabilitation in order to actually get better,and would benefit from these organizations’ efforts.
In conclusion, the rampant practice of glamorizing depression and self-harm is hazardous and needs to end. Depression and self-harm in teens is a serious issue and needs to be treated as such. The online communities that glorify this issue are dangerous, and despite their allure and few benefits,are more harmful than helpful. There, instead, should be a supportive community that provides information about these issues, and encourages rehabilitation and a healthy lifestyle, because that is the only way that these suffering people will get better. One single “reblog” has the potential to affect a person and those who love them for a lifetime.
Work Cited
Dewey, Caitlin. “Self-Harm Blogs Pose Problems and Opportunities”. Washington Post. Washington Post, 9 Sep. 2013. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.
Hartman, Sarah. “We Need To Stop Romanticizing Mental Illness”. Thought Catalog. Thought Catalog, 27 Dec. 2013. Web. 7 Feb. 2014.
“Depression”. NIMH. NIMH. Web. 8 Feb.2014.
Bine, Ann-Sophie. “Social Media is Redefining ‘Depression’”. The Atlantic. The Atlantic, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
Wolff, Lisa. Teen Depression. San Diego: Lucent Books, 1999. Print.
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