Serious off color mental health jokes

Nina

Nina

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    Mental health is pretty serious and I feel guilty when I laugh at some posts on r/2meirl4meirl, but at the same time sometimes you gotta have humor about it??
    I would never show any of these jokes to my parents because they would probably seriously worry about me so I do feel quite guilty about it, but if I'm having a really hard time mentally why not get some laughs out of it? Or do you think that we shouldn't ever joke about mental health in case we start to take people less seriously? It is a little disturbing when I've shared my feelings a little more casually before and the replies have been "mood", "same" and that was the end of the conversation. I can't expect people to take things seriously if I'm not taking it seriously, but are we getting desensitized to it when we make jokes?

     
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    Laughing is ultimately just a coping mechanism.

    I honestly can't really say much else. Partially because I tend to see things in another light (e.g. trying to think about the positives of something that's widely regarded as negative). From what I see modern society, it seems to be as following:

    if you have depression: you can make jokes about it
    if you don't have depression and you make jokes about it: you are mean

    This is me not judging anyone, btw. Just my perception of things right now.

    I suppose some desensitization is prone to happen and maybe it can be a good thing. Tough to say, honestly. You never know how society will develop.
     
    As Seliph said being able to joke about mental health is a pretty therapeutic way to cope with a morbid subject. I think it shows that you're not letting it have complete control over you. Ironically enough treating mental health with so much reverence that you can't even joke about it sounds a lot more depressing and unhealthy than occasionally poking fun at issues you've experienced or witnessed. I don't think it trivializes society's concern for mental health. We can spread information, encourage empathy and still tell jokes in my opinion. People joke about beating or killing others pretty casually yet we still take assault and murder seriously. I'd just advise to know your audience when telling offensive jokes in order to avoid hurt feelings and potential backlash when possible.
     
    I don't personally feel like it's appropriate for me to joke around about mental health since I don't have big issues myself. At the same time, I don't feel comfortable when I see those who do, joke around either. It creates some kind of morbid awkward atmosphere where I can't join in since that might be rude, but I also don't really think it's funny since I feel like there is something serious hidden beneath it.

    conclusion: i probably think some things shouldn't be joked about UNLESS the audience and situation is just right for it, as Black says. Sometimes, humor can be a way to force people to think about serious topics and reflect a bit, as stand-up comedians honestly can be good at making us do at times.
     
    I haven't read the other replies, so I dunno if someone already said this (I'll wait til I get my opinion out lol), but I think joking about mental health to an extent is okay, but it also glorifies it. Past a point people joke about it too much, and everything ever that's wrong with them, they just play it off as a joke, and it's damaging because it stops them from getting better, and also contributes to them actually feeling worse. It's that type of joking where you put yourself and your mental health down so much, that it's the opposite of therapeutic, and I stopped it years ago, I don't find it funny, and I've always tried to get my girlfriend to stop doing it so much. oof
     
    Self-deprecating humor can definitely become self-pity real quick. I've been guilty of that in the past and probably still am at times. I think the tweet that OP embedded is a good example of a joke about a morbid issue but everyone will have their own place where they draw the line.
     
    I don't joke about myself actually, because my issues are a bit too serious for it, I think.
    Mostly if I'm being negative about myself, it's because I'm tired of being this way.
     
    Humor is probably one of the things I go to the most. Not just because I find things funny, but I find being able to laugh at myself as a better alternative to normally just being overly hard on myself.

    I mean, there's a lot about who I am as a person I would like to change even if I think I'm the best I am now, and I find laughing at stuff about myself or even about problems in general as a strong means to help this and accept the world I'm living in.

    I get it if it's not everyone's cup of tea and edginess for the sake of being edgy I make fun of. Not everyone finds everything funny and not everyone has to. I can accept that and am not so entitled to require every place I post to accept the types of humor I enjoy. But for making jokes about stuff like that I don't really mind and think are perfectly okay when you use your common sense.

    On one hand, I don't think they should be barred on the other I think people should be smart about them instead of being needless dicks about it without a point. Since let's face it, I enjoy a good roast and all that gets to roots of problems and things.

    In summary, humor is something not everyone has everything in so not everyone can invest so much into it. So let them peeps that do have their own jokes and let the peeps that don't have space from it. But I mean if you aren't looking for any bit of bonding with another person then it's kind of hard to get them to not do some jokes that can hurt and whatnot, kind of the side effect of having something like humor exist at a buffet table.
     
    Humour is a coping mechanism, and shared laughter is one way of breaking down the barriers of isolation that come with most mental illnesses - especially as we become more aware of just how common these conditions really are. However, the problem with this mass acceptance is when people confuse the lack of isolation with the normalising of these illnesses, and replacing healthy coping mechanisms and self-improvement with feedback loops of cynical laughter about their troubles. It's one thing to laugh about your trials, it is another thing to use that laughter to replace genuine self-reflection, it is another thing to use that laughter to enable toxic habits, however conscious or not.

    I don't criticise humour as a coping mechanism, I do criticise humour without examination.

    It's a problem of broken healthcare and underfunded mental health support systems, really. Something something neoliberalism. If you don't have access to the professionals that are qualified to engage with you in the way that you need, you're far more likely to fall into habits that are not conductive to mental health. It is also a problem of mass awareness of these topics since 2013, without the critical thinking needed to apply that awareness of mental health topics to yourself - so many settle on the base level of discussion and do not progress further than that. You can tell which people have only learned social skills through the internet, honestly. Sometimes, this stuff is bad for you. Sometimes, you can't reinforce yourself through distancing yourself. It's not healthy to simply accept dire mental health as a state of normality - wanting to kill yourself is not a funny personality trait, even if we laugh at the Twitter memes and such. Not being able to communicate with people without dire fear striking your heart is not a fucking personality. They're not traits to build a life on. Furthermore, we need to be careful about debasing what the various terminologies in mental health mean. Are you really having a panic attack, or are you just feeling butterflies in your stomach? Normalising the pressures and anxieties we live with can be helpful, but you need to have a support system to help you, not one that encourages the acceptance of what these pressures can create.

    The issue of edginess and such is irrelevant - that's just a matter of the social standards that you and your social circle adhere to. It's just a matter of who you talk to. The trouble is when these social standards don't advocate for growth. Laughter can only go so far, and too many people don't go far enough.
     
    Everyone else has already said more or less what I want to say on the issue, so I'll keep it brief. If you can laugh about something, it can't hurt you. That's a statement I've made a lot over the years and while it's not entirely accurate and is a simplification of things in just about every way, the sentiment remains the same.

    If you can joke about something, it takes away a lot of the power it has over you and that makes it much easier to cope with the problem whether it's an external issue or something internal like mental health problems. It also makes it easier for others to talk about too, although we should be careful we don't trivialise things.
     
    I've never made jokes about it, simply because I can't find humor in it. If it's someone's way of coping then I understand.
     
    Typically, if people crack jokes about mental health, in my experience it's because they have the issues themselves or they're joking with a buddy that has issues that they know will take it in stride. Those are the times it was well received anyway. Obviously there are times when the jokes have not been well received and it was either because they crossed a line and the joke was no longer in good humor, it was spiteful. Personally, I try to refrain from making these jokes. Mental illness or not, i know some people out there will still perceive the jokes in bad tastes and will think I am intentionally trying to be mean rather than crack a joke. So just to avoid that situation and to be respectful, I don't typically crack these jokes. I think sometimes I make puns with friends but even then that's rare and I don't think I've done it within the last year or so, but I could be forgetting.
     
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    In this particular case, it seems more like a way of venting frustrations about life. I don't think there's any deeper meaning to it than that and I don't think it's a positive or negative thing, it's just a thing.

    As far as the seriousness question, some people are okay with talking about these topics and some aren't. If you're getting non-serious reactions to things you want a serious response to, you may want to try posting in a place with a more serious atmosphere.
     
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