JE-NL

Salem: Just a few quick notes on this.

I want to say right off the bat that there’s no “right” way to deal with mental illness, and this comic isn’t suggesting that. The problem lies in not dealing with it at all – like we said in the strip, “luxuriating” in your mental illness – being comfortable with the way it hurts you and damages your life.

Meme culture is definitely a good way to understand that a person isn’t alone in dealing with mental illness, but it can swing hard in a bad direction. Communities form around the concept “I’m mentally ill guess I’m just broken and there’s nothing I can do I’m horrible helpless garbage lol”. Worse, when “isn’t that cute?” is appended to it. It can create a network, only not one of positive support but negative reinforcement. And then once you’ve found a place in it, glamorizing mental illness and actively rejecting getting help becomes normalized. That’s what we don’t like. 

Also: don’t worry, next week is a comic about poop.