By Andrea Duran & Sarah Malik
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
What this story covers
Memes are a common way for people to express themselves on social media — whether they are making a point, sharing a laugh or both. Increasingly, students are posting and responding to memes about their mental health.
Why it matters
Seeing a meme that makes light of serious issues like anxiety and depression can be therapeutic. But can this dark humor negatively affect people who are struggling with their mental health? And where should the line be drawn?
“Roses are red, the sun is shining, my mental health is rapidly declining.” Those words accompany a meme posted on Trent Gosnay’s Instagram page, @everthing_sauce, which he describes on the page as “A little dose of everything to make your day less SUCC [an alternative spelling of suck].”
Gosnay, 23, and his friend have co-owned their meme page since 2018. By definition, memes are an idea, behavior or style expressed in an image or text that is spread online, especially through social media. What makes their page unique is the volume of “dank memes” consisting of self-deprecating posts and gallows humor about mental health. Posts often consist of peculiar images regarding sleep deprivation, depression and self-hatred.
Gosnay, who has social anxiety, said his Instagram is an outlet for expressing his feelings, specifically his current mood and emotions. His posts on mental health usually address anxiety and depression. He irregularly posts for his roughly 80 followers and averages about 17 likes per post.
“This is what helps me,” Gosnay said. “Memes allow me to express my feelings without the need for a long-ass paragraph,” Gosnay said.
Gosnay, like many others, uses social media as a platform to express his mental health concerns by posting nihilist, dark and sometimes nonsensical memes.
News coverage of mental health memes has increased in recent years as the volume and popularity of such posts have exploded. This form of gallows humor has shed light on how young people are addressing their mental health in the digital age.
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Topics like depression, anxiety, suicide and obsessive-compulsive disorder are commonplace in gallows humor memes. This type of humor, which pokes fun at otherwise serious topics, is especially popular among teenagers and young adults.
Social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and TikTok all have pages dedicated to this particular form of coping. Mental health memes depicted through images, video and text are common and allow people to have a public forum to discuss their mental health problems. However, it also opens the possibility that people may regret posting about their mental health, by being laughed off or ignored or getting unhelpful blowback online.
Gosnay, who has seen, commented on or posted mental health memes on many social media platforms, said the relatability of these memes make them appealing. He said Instagram is where he most often posts and sees such content — and he’s also active on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit.
“I see mental health stuff on all socials,” Gosnay said. “Usually the really funny ones are super weird but still make sense. Like, the ones about dying are pretty funny because we all kinda hate our lives.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates increase every year. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. Yet that doesn’t mean the topic is off limits on social media. In fact, it’s very much the norm in some circles.
“We all have said [something about death] at some point,” Gosnay said. “It’s more or less a crude way to let everyone know that you feel like shit. It’s not meant to be taken seriously at all.”
Using gallows and nihilistic humor to cope with difficult times
Follow the news closely these days and there’s plenty to worry about: climate change, political unrest, international conflict, police brutality, deportation — the list goes on. It can be hard to remain optimistic. For those with mental health issues like anxiety and depression, external events can lead to internal struggles.
“I’m black and trans, so for me, the issue of racism and police brutality is going to be on my mind all the time while for someone who is Mexican, the issue of deportation is going to be on their mind all the time,” said Danny Pumphrey, a student at Towson University. “We have to laugh so we don’t cry.”
Using nihilistic or gallows humor to cope with an uncertain world is not new. According to Dr. Carol Caronna, a sociology professor at Towson University specializing in organizational theory, institutional theory, and applications of organizational theory to health and health care, after World War II, the world was also plunged into uncertainty as the threat of nuclear war was ever-present.
“I didn’t really used to think about it, but my sister would just lay on the floor and think about nuclear war,” Caronna said.
Back then, of course, there were no platforms like social media for everyone to express their fears and concerns. Often that came through in film and television, produced by the few rather than the masses.
“In the ’70s there was M.A.S.H and, I mean , the theme song literally was ‘Suicide is Painless,’” Caronna said.
Mad Magazine, founded in 1952, used gallows humor and satire to showcase anxieties from that time. The trend dates back much earlier.
“Victorian children’s books had gallows humor about death because lots of kids died,” Caronna said.
Throughout history, people have responded to death, destruction and uncertainty with absurdist and gallows humor. It’s been a coping mechanism for centuries.
With social media, everyone can express these feelings, raise awareness about mental health issues and make light of serious problems.
But is this healthy?
Overall, extended use of social media has shown negative impacts on mental health. Distancing oneself from social media reduces feelings of loneliness and depression. However, as an alternative to professional help, using social media for mental health can be beneficial because it allows people to discuss their concerns openly and find others who are struggling.
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Pumphrey, a Towson student, said coming across a mental health meme helps because it shows you aren’t alone.
“It makes it seem like it’s not something so stigmatized,” Pumphrey said. “I think oftentime, when you have a mental health condition, even though you know you’re not the only one, you still get [the feeling that you’re the only one], especially when you’re surrounded by people who don’t have it.”
Rose Giron, a Towson student, struggled with bulimia when she was younger, and though she has recovered from it, she still struggles with her body image, relationship to food, and is very sensitive to issues concerning body image on social media. She remembered how one day, Lizzo, the body-positive singer, broke down on Instagram Live, sharing her own struggles with body image.
“Seeing that helped me in the sense that even the most confident person who may appear to have a lot of good things happen to her could still really struggle,” Giron said. “And so, it kind of made me feel better because even when good things happen to you, it’s ok to be sad, it’s ok to not be ok. As long as you acknowledge it and talk about it, let yourself feel it and then kind of try and get better from it. So that was the one moment that I felt like social media and something about being so upfront really was impactful.”
Sending memes directly to a close circle of friends or family on social media can be therapeutic, according to students.
“For me, a lot of the time it’s when I’m trying to process my emotions when I’m having an episode — I have Bipolar, type 2 — so I have episodes that swing from mania to depression so sometimes when I don’t really know how to describe what I’m feeling,” Pumphrey said. “I tend to shut down and don’t really know how to talk about it. So, I’ll see a meme that’s just like, ‘that’s how I feel, it describes it perfectly’ and I’ll send it to, say, my roommate or friend. It sometimes helps them know, ‘oh this is how he’s feeling, this is what’s going on.’”
Pumphrey describes sending memes as being a “shorthand” way of communicating with someone, because it is a quick way of getting those who are closest to him to better understand what he is going through.
Views differ on using social media as a coping mechanism
Mental health memes can be a polarizing topic. While some argue that they are healthy ways for people to express themselves, others see them as unnecessary, inappropriate and, in some cases, even dangerous.
Listen as Keith Runk, a Baltimore Watchdog reporter, asks students to respond in real time to mental health memes.
Dr. Mollie Herman, associate director and staff psychologist at the Towson University Counseling Center, said social media can give people the false illusion of connection.
“One of the big things is that it keeps people isolated,” Herman said. “For some people, it does provide a certain kind of connection, and maybe that connection can be helpful in some ways. My bias is that it isn’t enough.”
According to Herman, “face-to-face interaction” is the only way people can build their interpersonal communication skills.
Pumphrey and Giron both agree that broadcasting issues of mental health can be harmful because when someone suffering from a mental health concern reaches out to someone online or by sharing a meme, there is always the danger of it just being laughed off.
When Pumphrey posts memes or sends them directly to someone he does not know as well or is not as close to, it can backfire. According to Pumphrey, sometimes members of his family dismiss his mental health memes or don’t want to talk about the topic.
“It’s not always easy talking about things, and sometimes when you have a mental health condition, it very much makes you shut down, become non-verbal, so it gets even harder to comprehend or get someone else to comprehend how you’re feeling — and so you just find a meme that perfectly describes it [and hit] send,” Pumphrey said. “They get it and then they’re concerned and understand and try to start a conversation or sometimes you have the negative side and they just laugh it off, and you’re like ‘welp–I tried to reach out!’”
According to Dr. Samuel Collins, a cultural anthropologist at Towson University who specializes in information society and globalization, when posts and memes go viral on the internet, they often lose their original meaning or context.
“When someone posts something, it very rarely goes viral, usually it just stays within the circle of followers one has,” Collins said. “And when things go viral, [whatever is posted] is taken away from that original context.”
Ariana Meinster, the president of Towson’s Active Minds club, a mental health advocacy organization, said that social media users can sometimes trivialize mental health issues — especially if they aren’t suffering themselves.
“Since people use the [phrases associated with specific mental health issues] in their common language and not in the right way, people are beginning to use mental health issues as adjectives,” Meinster said.
She recalled a tweet that she saw in which someone jokes about being “OCD” for wanting to keep their dorm room tidy and thought that was an example of how some posts about mental health can be trivializing.
“You wouldn’t say these things about physical conditions,” Meinster said. “You wouldn’t say ‘that test gave me cancer,’ but people say, ‘that test gave me PTSD.’”
Robyn Suchy, chapter manager at Active Minds, said he views social media — under the right conditions — to be a safe space where people can share experiences about mental health.
“From my personal experience, I’m transgender, and I was the only person I knew who was transgender,” Suchy said. “When I found Facebook groups, there was a whole community being formed where folks in different parts of the world in another country where they might not have a big resource, like in New York City or San Francisco. That form, that connection was not only really positive, but for our mental health, we finally found someone who understood, someone who we can talk to and brainstorm. There was a lot of mental health support happening there.”
Added Gosnay: “It’s not weird to talk about because legit everyone does it. If people find it weird or concerning, I usually just ignore them and say, ‘ok boomer’ since they’re most likely old anyway. If it makes people feel better, good. If you don’t like it, block the pages and don’t interact. Simple.”
“Part of that conversation is distinguishing what is and isn’t appropriate to discuss.”
Suchy said gallows humor surrounding mental health is a grey area that needs to be discussed more. Because it involves personal information that some may find triggering, discussing and sharing gallows humor memes should be done with consideration of others.
“I think the conversation needs to evolve and young people are on the forefront of that,” he said. “ Part of that conversation is distinguishing what is and isn’t appropriate to discuss.”
Mental health memes are here to stay
Mental health memes go viral every day. The most popular accounts that post such memes have upward of 1 million followers. These posts often encourage conversation about mental health — and are validating to those who post them.
“Seeing your post get likes makes you feel pretty good about yourself,” Gosnay said. “It’s not the main reason why I post, but it’s nice to know that others like my stuff. Accounts with a lot of followers reach a big amount of people, so it’s cool to know that there are a million others dealing with the same stuff.”
Research shows that social media validation in the form of likes and shares triggers the dopamine in your brain, according to psychologist Emma Kenny. In addition, prolonged use of social media is linked to depression in young adults, according to Anxiety and Depression, the official journal of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
Instagram has become aware of this and announced that it will make likes invisible as a trial. In an interview, Kim Kardashian West, who has 151 million Instagram followers, told The New York Times, “As far as mental health… I think taking the likes away and taking that aspect away from [Instagram] would be really beneficial for people,” she said.
Gosnay disagrees with this action, saying that likes are “superficial” and should not stop the conversation surrounding mental health. When he posts memes, he is indifferent on the amount of likes he’ll receive.
He said posting to social media is one coping mechanism but can’t be the only one.
“At the end of the day, how you manage your mental health is your concern,” Gosnay said. “If you wanna make and share memes, cool. If you don’t, cool. Know your limit and know when it’s crossing the line of funny to concerning. The internet is right there, so you might as well use it however the hell you want.”