People with mental Illnesses often get labeled or portrayed with false stereotypes such as incapable of living a normal life, crazy, unpredictable, and violent. However, recently a new stereotype has arisen, one that makes mental illnesses seem almost trendy. We’ve been seeing these new depictions a lot in the media: on TV, Tumblr, Instagram photos, etc. They display people with mental illnesses as desirably quirky, cute and vulnerable, mysterious and alluring. All attributes that are not what mental illnesses are. We’ve even seen mental illnesses used as humorous jokes, one case being the recent trending twitter hash tag “#IGetDepressedWhen.”

What people don’t seem to realize is that mental illnesses aren’t something you can choose when or how you have them. For people who suffer, it’s not cute, attractive, quirky, or funny. And it’s not something to imply in order to seem trendy. They should not be used as a social fad.

Mental illnesses are debilitating and devastating conditions. People who are diagnosed with them have to spend every day coping with and experiencing them. Not in a trendy way, not in a unique way, not in an attractive way.

Often, it comes down to the language we use which misrepresents and appropriates mental illnesses. I’ve become more aware of the way society uses this language. How many times have we heard the phrase, “I’m so depressed about this,” or “I’m have such bad test anxiety for tomorrow’s exam.” People throw around this language, normalizing mental illnesses so they seem insignificant and trivial, like types of emotions or personality traits, rather than serious conditions.

These false self-diagnosis sayings like “I’m so ODC about that” and other loose language of mental illness makes it seem like a casual phenomenon, even going as far as a trendy phenomenon. For people who really have mental illnesses, it’s much deeper than that, involving mental and physical symptoms. It’s a chronic condition for them.

While it may seem like it’s not a big deal, you may think they’re just sayings or figures of speech, there is real danger in it. The language makes an undesirable and serious health condition seem almost desirable and maybe even having social advantages and status. It leads people to understanding mental illnesses is a false manor.

“It upsets me a lot, especially as a person with depression. It’s not just being sad, is so much deeper. The trivialization of it bothers me,” says Tawn Christians, a UWL Senior who is passionate on the topic, “mental illnesses are not easy to get over, you can’t snap out of it, it’s so complex, it has depth with unseen symptoms under the surface. In no way is it a temporary state. In no way should it be socially constructed to be trendy.”

We can’t directly change the way media portrays mental illnesses, but we can make an impact in our own communities by watching our use of language. Using mental illnesses as a way of describing your emotions or your behavior makes people who actually have them feel upset and stigmatized. Mental illnesses are not trendy traits to have or figures of speech; they are chronic states of mind. Depression isn’t an emotion, it’s not the same as sadness. OCD isn’t quirky, it’s a condition that rules one’s life. Test anxiety is different than simply being nervous for a test. State what you are: sad, particular, nervous. Don’t use mental illnesses as synonyms. Your choice of language can change the way society portrays and understands mental illnesses.