I think it's definitely had the positive effects that you mention. People are far less cruel, more understanding, and also WAY more willing to go seek help with these types of problems than they used to be.

The negative effect is that anytime something becomes romanticized, it's human nature for people to adopt it as an identity, which introduces a lot of noise to the conversation, and we lose some of our objectivity toward it, as now there's an emotional attachment to the label itself. For example:

Back in the day (early 2010s?) of tumblr, when people first started collecting mental health labels like personal trading cards.
Or now, with the plethora of pseudoscientific misinformation about mental health on tiktok: random people are just making up terms or symptoms and pitching them in a nearly universally relatable way like horoscopes.
If you offer people a label that makes them feel part of a group, supported, and potentially explain why a bunch of things in their life are hard, it's in our nature to gravitate toward that.

All that being said, I still think it's a net-positive effect. This is just what happens anytime something clinical enters the mainstream conversation.

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You are one of the reasons lemmy is great.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for the kind words <3

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

I got my very own meme from The Picard Maneuver!
<3
<3
<3

[–] Azuth@lemmy.today 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

it's human nature for people to adopt it as an identity, which introduces a lot of noise to the conversation, and we lose some of our objectivity toward it, as now there's an emotional attachment to the label itself.

I've noticed this in LGBQT culture as well. I'm a gay older Millenial and I've noticed that zoomers make their sexuality a much bigger part of their identities than qeer folks my age and older do as it becomes more accepted. For me, I don't want to be "special". I want absolute equality- I wish being with my boyfriend was seen as normal and ordinary.