Likewise, just as some journalists decried the overapplication of labels like depression and anxiety, there has been a steady flow of columns warning against the pathologizing of ‘normal behaviour’ by labelling it as a symptom of Autism or ADHD. It is common to come across posts from professionally diagnosed users claiming that the conditions have been caricatured, minimised, or made light of by other content creators. Just as in the 2010s movement against the stigma of mental health issues, there has been a significant backlash to this kind of social media content. Users with autism and/or ADHD produce content that challenges stigma, encourages acceptance and pride in those that share the conditions, and (perhaps most controversially) suggests that viewers who recognise some of the traits and behaviours exhibited in themselves may be undiagnosed members of this group. On the (relatively) new social media platform TikTok, a similar wave of social campaigning is emerging around neurodiversity.
While the stigma attached to labels like depression and anxiety was not entirely eradicated, conditions like these were, to at least some extent, normalised –– an attitude shift exemplified by the slogan ‘it’s okay to not be okay.’ As a result of extensive and effective campaigning across social and traditional media platforms, a marked shift took place in public discussion of mental health conditions in the 2010s.
0 kommentar(er)
