Relatable jokes about trauma can help people feel less alone, but questions remain over how therapeutic they can truly be
When, more than a decade ago, I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, I turned to the internet to learn more about my condition.
Back then, the effects of trauma weren’t exactly unknown, but they weren’t making headlines, either. Most of the information I found was on psychology websites, but it wasn’t until I went to the doctor and received my diagnosis that I fully understood what was happening to me. Public awareness of the condition was low – or at least, it wasn’t something that people spoke openly about. I felt very alone.
Fast forward to 2021 and the word “trauma” is everywhere. You’re as likely to find references to PTSD on Instagram as you are on a medical website, and mental health memes in particular have been on the increase; in fact, their preponderance has been unmistakable during the pandemic.
The most obvious example is the use of the word “triggered”, which was originally used to describe the way the brains of people with PTSD react when re-exposed to something that recalls the original trauma and puts them in fight-or-flight mode. It has now become so ubiquitous that it’s been co-opted by the political right as an example of leftwing oversensitivity – see Donald Trump Jr’s book of the same name.
Though I am mostly recovered, seeing words that once were used clinically to describe my illness splashed all over the internet is certainly an adjustment – especially when they are used thoughtlessly. And with this new enthusiasm for mental health memes come questions: Does their proliferation risk watering down the terminology? Should we worry about people self-diagnosing online? And do we risk opening up the mental health conversation to cynical commercial interests?
“I feel so seen,” I think, when I log into Instagram and am confronted by a meme about self-sabotage. Many accounts tend to be knowingly subversive and ironic, such as this meme from mental health meme queen @binchcity: “Being mentally ill is a full-time job and I’m getting employee of the month.”
Others are earnest and along the lines of inspirational quotes, for example: “This isn’t anxiety. This is complex trauma,” as posted on Instagram by a “certified trauma recovery coach”. (Some of the people posting advice or encouragement range from dubious “life coaches” with little certification to licensed professionals, and the use of memes in this context has even been called “dangerous” by some.)
Some have a DIY collage aesthetic, while othersare more like cartoons.
Some strike a more serious note. Erin Taylor, a 25-year-old writer and artist from New York, runs the meme account @atmfiend, which includes memes about narcissism, rape and child sexual abuse.
“I used my meme page as an attempt to process what was going on with my life, from cutting out my father to processing childhood trauma,” she says. “The main motivation was healing myself, but I think [it] ultimately allowed others space to heal themselves, too.”
“I think it’s beneficial for people to know they’re not alone … often people don’t have friends or family talking about abuse, neglect, domestic partner violence or feelings generally,” says Taylor.
At their best, these memes help sufferers process the things that have happened to them in a safe way, helping them to confront difficult issues without being exposed or triggered – like a visual diary, or even a form of exposure therapy.
Bessel van der Kolk is laughing. I’m reading memes to the psychiatrist and best-selling author over Zoom, including one that makes reference to his pioneering book The Body Keeps the Score, which explores how trauma reshapes both the body and the brain and has been back in the bestseller charts thanks to the pandemic.
Twitter user @sydneyelainexo wrote in March: “Kindly asking my body to stop keeping the score” – a tweet which garnered 22.7k likes.
“Very good,” says van der Kolk. He says that he is too embedded in the trauma world to ask about how perceptions have changed, but likes the memes I read to him.
“Trauma is usually about shame and secrecy,” he says. “Somebody does something to you, and you blame yourself. The people who did these things to you say you’re making it up or you’re crazy, or you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. And so the way to actually deal with trauma is very much to find people who are there with you and who support you.”