Holding Space for the Rise of Psych Talk

“I really love to organize all my things, I’m so OCD.”

“He’s so narcissistic, he’s probably gaslighting you.”

“This has been the worst day ever, I’m so depressed.”

“She never knows what she wants, it’s like she’s schizophrenic.”

“We need to hold space for everyone’s thoughts in the meeting.”

Are these sentences you have heard or maybe said yourself? If so, you’re not alone. There has been a rise in the use of psychological terms and conditions in everyday life. Especially in online spaces and through social media, these conditions come to mean separate but similar things to the original terms. This is also impacted by the rise of self-diagnosis, and the feeling of disconnection created by the increase in online communities over in-person ones. This can be shown by the increase in people reporting a mental illness before and after COVID-19.

Positively speaking, those who have never heard of these ideas may find something relatable to describe their experience in a way that they may not otherwise be able to encapsulate. This is good, as it can push people to get a diagnosis or treatment for something that they did not know they were dealing with. Some psychologists theorize that the rise in these terms being used in everyday conversations can work to destigmatize mental illness. Also, this therapy speech can speak to a more complex or previously unnamed feeling, which can be incredibly powerful, even if used inaccurately. Being able to identify with a term can help explain inner thoughts, and finding community in specific feelings can be incredibly beneficial. It can help people forge an identity through these terms, and it helps people who may not otherwise know about these conditions find a way through.

Also, certain coping strategies like deep breathing can be used by many people to help feel better without a specific condition, so the widespread exchange of ideas about therapeutic treatment and conditions can work to benefit those who don’t have any specific condition. It can also be a great way for people to find out about psychological terms, without having to pay money that a person may not have to find out from a professional.

More negatively, however, is that the use of these terms in a casual sense can water down what they really mean. A term like trauma, which describes an event that has caused a lasting impact on someone’s psyche, can be thrown around to describe a weird interaction or a hard day. With this effect, these terms can easily become misused or have a completely different meaning in the world of psychology versus the world of colloquial speech. Watching a video online or reading an article can make it hard to address the full nuance of a word. Take something like narcissism, this is a concept that has been used colloquially for a long time, unlike many other concepts that have just recently become more normalized (i.e. recent words/practices/theories like safe space, triggers, attachment styles), but the term narcissism is very different from narcissistic personality disorder, that has very specific criteria, that only few fit into. This, in turn, can increase the likelihood for people to pathologize themselves or others. By identifying with a certain condition, it will increase the likelihood that a person may confirm, to themselves, that identity. If you have a bad few months, you may think, I must be depressed, and this ideology can follow you and affect how you make decisions in the future, if this identity is taken to heart. It can also be used to justify behavior. You may say you are too depressed to hang out with friends, and then the loneliness of not going can reinforce the depression. These mental health terms can be used to isolate people from one another. It is good to stick up for yourself in an argument, but when you tell the other party that they are “gaslighting” you or that you “don’t have the capacity” to speak about it right now to justify avoiding the conversation, it can “deepen divides in a relationship” (APA, 2021).

So, if there are both positive and negative impacts, where do we go from here?

Like most things in life, it’s a nuanced issue that has both positive and negative effects. With the concerns of misuse of terms and diagnosis, the best thing to do as an individual is to be careful when using psychological conditions and ideas to describe things in life. Another important note is to be careful when listening to people online. Online spheres have boosted the spread of information, which is great, but also means that anyone can make content about any subject, without necessarily having qualifications in that subject. An APA (American Psychological Association) study found that 83.7% of videos randomly pulled under the hashtag “mental health” on the platform TikTok contained misleading information. Be aware of where you get your information from and have a critical lens on online people who are prescribing advice or encouraging self-diagnosis.

Citations

Medaris, A. (2021, September 1). How to harness the power of therapy-speak. Monitor on psychology. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2024/09/therapy-speak

Wagage, S. (2023, December 28). The rise of “Therapy speak.” Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness. https://www.cbtmindful.com/articles/therapy-speak

Waldman, K. (2021, March 26). The rise of therapy-speak. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-rise-of-therapy-speak