We're Not in on the Joke

    I'm sure we've all seen the crime and arrest reports in our local newspaper like, "Man Flees Imaginary Pursuer on College Campus," or something like "Naked Man Arrested for Hiding in Stranger's Car". I'm sure we've also all heard people laugh at those reports and maybe even share them on social media for a laugh. We've probably all also seen the local homeless man talking to himself like he's having a conversation of which we can only hear one side, and I'm sure we've all had someone in the car that cracked some jokes or poked fun at that homeless man. In the celebrity realm, we've probably all seen and heard the jokes made at Britney Spears' and Amanda Bynes' expense after their mental health struggles. Just the other day on Twitter, I saw people retweeting Kanye West as he appeared to be in the middle of a mental health struggle and making jokes at his expense.

    I get it. Bizarre behavior can be funny.  I also know that people have a morbid interest in the "fall" of celebrities, and the more heartbreaking the "fall" is, the funnier it seems to be to those kinds of people.

    As I've seen the way people tend to make jokes and poke fun about "those stupid druggies" from the newspaper arrest reports with titles like the ones I mentioned above, I've wondered if those unkind people are aware that an untreated and/or severe mental health condition usually lurks behind those arrest reports, and drugs may not even be a factor. (Even if it is "just drugs", an addiction is still considered a mental health and public health condition that requires treatment.) When people rejoice in the mental health struggle of "those poor (snickers) celebrities", I wonder if they're aware that mental health conditions don't discriminate based on celebrity status, and that all the money, fame, and general "cool stuff" in the world doesn't make them immune to an imbalance of brain chemicals, just like it doesn't make them immune to cancer. I also wonder if they've forgotten that celebrities are humans with feelings.

    To the people that laugh at and make jokes at the expense of someone who struggles with their mental health...Do you realize that you know someone with a mental health condition? One in five people in the US lives with a mental health condition, so you're probably often in close contact with someone who has a mental health condition. Do you know that publicly laughing at someone who is struggling with mental health and making jokes about it is a big reason that so many people don't go and get the help they need to manage their mental health condition? 

    According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, an average of 132 people commit suicide every day, which is around 48,180 people each year. According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, around 46% of the people who die by suicide each year have a known and treatable mental health condition. (That means those deaths could possibly have been prevented with treatment.) Maybe the way people in our society like to point and laugh at the mentally ill has something to do with why those people felt they couldn't ask for the help they needed and instead lost the battle with their mental health condition. Those crime reports and celebrity downfalls don't seem so funny now, do they?

    Laughing at mental illness is just another way that society has taught us to belittle those that are suffering and tell them that they don't actually matter. It sends the message to those of us with mental health conditions that the thing that literally tries to take our lives still isn't taken seriously. If you wouldn't laugh at or poke fun at someone with cancer, why are you doing it with mental health conditions? Both are deadly. Both cause suffering. So, what's the difference? How is one type of suffering allowed to be funny but laughing at the other type of suffering is forbidden?

    As someone with OCD, I've been in situations where my mental health condition has been made into a joke. I've been in a situation when I was crying because of my anxiety, and someone laughed because the thing I was crying about didn't make sense to them. Like everyone else with a mental health condition that gets turned into a laugh, I was not in on the joke, and I most definitely didn't find anything about the situation funny. 

    I'll end with this: Laughing at or making fun of someone as they struggle with a mental health issue, whether they're a celebrity or not, is never okay. Joking at our expense is yet another way that the mental health stigma keeps people from seeking help. All it takes is a moment to think. Think about how you might feel in a similar situation or how you'd feel if it was a parent or sibling in that situation before you share the "funny" crime report, before you share the "news" article, before you make that "joke" on social media.