Graphic courtesy of Anjali Rao-Herel ‘22.
By Sabrina Rapoport ’25
Staff Writer
Content warning: this article discusses mental illness and mentions eating disorders and self-harm.
Countless times, I have heard people my age say “I have such OCD over my pens,” or “Honestly, I have PTSD from that homework assignment.” Using mental health terminology colloquially is extremely harmful to those who experience mental illnesses. These sorts of remarks lead to misinformation that incorrectly defines illnesses and consequently, people either misdiagnose themselves or fully dismiss their own symptoms.
Social media exacerbates the misuse of mental health terminology, and has featured the romanticization of mental illness since its conception, according to the Humanology Project, a blog focused on mental health. In Tumblr’s early days in the 2010s, this manifested as “pro-ana” — pro-anorexia — blogs, which centered around the glorification of eating disorders, and the romanticization of self-harm, as reported by TechCrunch, a technology-focused newspaper. The internet has a long history of mishandling the subject of mental health. As a generation that has grown up with heavy social media influence, most of the knowledge we gather is, to certain degree, tainted by these earlier generations of misinformation. This, therefore, makes it nearly impossible to obtain proper definitions of conditions because of the obfuscated way in which the discussion is constantly portrayed.
Posttraumatic stress disorder is one commonly misrepresented condition, both on and off of social media. The “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” a handbook largely used by mental health professionals to diagnose mental illnesses, defined PTSD through multiple criteria: exposure to “actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence,” recurrent and involuntary distressing memories of the event — referred to as flashbacks — and negative changes in cognition after the event, such as completely distorted or absent memories of the traumatic event. PTSD, although commonly associated with veterans of war, is not a rare condition. In fact, the American Psychiatric Association claims that one in 11 people will be diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetime. PTSD is a spectrum, and not everyone has the same severity of symptoms. As someone professionally diagnosed with PTSD, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people misappropriate this term to use casually, and how many times, consequently, I did not trust that person anymore.
Similarly, obsessive-compulsive disorder is defined in this manual as “repetitive behaviors (e.g., hand washing, ordering checking) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words silently) that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession, or according to the rules that must be applied rigidly.” While there are versions of OCD that involve cleanliness, that does not mean that the term can be used offhandedly to describe people who simply value cleanliness. The misapplication of the term harms people with OCD by obscuring both its definition and its symptoms. OCD, like PTSD, exists along a spectrum, meaning that different symptoms can manifest in different ways depending on the person experiencing them. The exclusion of the diversity of possible manifestations is a significant misinterpretation of the condition, which can lead people to be mis- or under-diagnosed.
“I have OCD, but didn’t know that I could possibly have it because of people using it casually and incorrectly,” Olivia Vermeire ’25 said. “It makes me feel sad for other people who may have OCD but not know, since it is way more than just being neat and hand washing.” Once the incorrect use of these expressions interferes with people’s diagnosis or ability to detect their own illnesses, it is clear that misinformation has affected our day to day lives.
The colloquial use of these terms in conversation also removes a safe space for people diagnosed with mental illnesses. When we see one of our friends reduce the importance of something so impactful to us, it feels like our emotions and experiences are being reduced with it.
More recently, social media has largely improved conversations about mental health, providing an outlet for mental health specialists and mentally ill people to share their experiences and knowledge, according to Talkspace, an online therapy service. However, social media has proven to be a two-faceted provider of information. I see people reposting infographics about how to obtain therapy, all the while misappropriating official mental health terminology. We have gone from one extreme to the other: from refusing to talk about mental health during the early 2000s to making it a quirky or fun trait to be mentally ill.
I propose a healthy middle. I ask that these terms stop being used casually, as it removes the importance and depth of their symptoms, but I encourage open dialogue about diagnosed conditions. If we do not have open spaces to communicate with each other, whether it is with our friends and family, or people with shared experiences on the internet, then mental health topics may be fully dismissed again. However, it is our job, as informed listeners, to correct behavior. So when your friend says they have “such OCD” regarding their behaviors or were “given PTSD” from mundane situations, listen, then address it. There is only one way we will be truly able to address this issue: communication.