When it comes to memes, nothing is off the table, even mental health. Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Professor Lynn Zubernis, Ph.D., writes that memes can actually help us cope. The humor and communication that they can provide help us deal with anxiety and stress. And when we relate to them, it validates our sadness and our struggles.
Full of such memes is the page "Just Nihilist Things." Its creator simply shares content they find funny. Why? "Well, I don't know either since none of this really matters," the page's bio reads in a very fitting manner. If few things in the world make sense anymore, perhaps this collection of memes will?
Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Benjamin Burroughs, associate professor of Emerging Media at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and he kindly agreed to share his expertise with us. His research focuses on social media and digital journalism, so we asked him how memes about mental health fit into the larger context of Internet culture. Read his insights below!
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The Just Nihilist Things meme page has been running since 2016. As of 2024, it boasts over 21k followers. That might not seem like a lot, but the number doesn't diminish the relatability or relevancy of the content. A portion of the memes are nihilistic, but, more than anything, they are about mental health and those who struggle with mental health issues.
As we've mentioned above, memes can actually help with issues like anxiety and stress. Associate professor of Emerging Media, Dr. Benjamin Burroughs, tells us that it’s because Internet memes can be a great source of humor and release. "Memes often work so well within the clutter of modern social media and digital life because they can quickly and humorously puncture the quotidian."
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"The memes with ‘Just Nihilist Things’ seem to play a role in being a kind of cathartic release," Dr. Burroughs observes. "Memes are referential and not long-form humor, so you should immediately get the reference and the joke embedded within. Humor is often a coping mechanism, and these kinds of memes can stud our everyday digital life – granting us a cathartic release."
He notes that memes can be both beneficial and harmful to individuals who struggle with mental health conditions. "They can make social media platforms lighter and grant moments of joy within the heaviness or negativity that can algorithmically dominate some social media channels and platforms. On the other hand, these memes can be jarring and constant reminders of trauma that is embedded within the humor."
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As the world of memes stretches far and wide, who should be responsible for the ethics of sharing mental health memes? "Memes circulate so quickly and are largely anonymous or devoid of single authorship that it can be difficult to assign a specific set of ethical considerations to those generating memes," Dr. Burroughs explains. "Certainly, there are ethical considerations, for those who decide to circulate these memes and the platforms that facilitate the exchange."
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Dr. Burroughs also says that the ethics of sharing mental health memes is kind of a gray area. "The difficulty is that meme circulation and reception can be highly contextual, and within that ambiguity, you don't want to lock down or eliminate ways that memes can be cathartic when it comes to mental health while not wanting to exacerbate trauma through memes," he tells Bored Panda.
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In the end, Burroughs sees more positives than negatives. They are important because of their relatability element, and they can also educate people. "Mental health memes can be seen as ways to demystify and shed light on the struggles that those struggling with anxiety, for example, deal with on an everyday basis," he notes. "Mental health memes can also help those who don't have any experience or knowledge of these mental health issues and challenges to better understand what others are going through."
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What are the potential dangers of mental health memes then? "The challenge is when the biting humor of memes might trivialize or diminish that experience rather than provide a reflexive space for enhanced sharing, learning, and understanding," Dr. Burroughs explains.
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Researchers have already proved that browsing the Internet for memes can help with anxiety. In a 2021 study, people said that viewing and sharing COVID-19-related memes helped them deal with severe anxiety. The researchers concluded that memes, thus, can be a great coping mechanism for those struggling with anxiety-related symptoms.
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Another study in 2022 concluded that memes can help individuals with psychiatric symptoms. "While mental health memes typically depict dark and negative humour, their proximal nature to those experiencing psychiatric symptoms may be considered contextually positive," the researchers wrote. "Most psychiatrically vulnerable individuals report positive experiences when engaging with such memes."
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'Depression memes' and 'sad posting' can also be an antidote to the perfection we see online. Donna Freitas, the author of The Happiness Effect, interviewed more than 800 college students and found that the majority feel pressured to post happy things online.
Because we see our friends and peers only post positive things about their lives, this creates a false image in our heads that everyone else's life is perfect except for ours. But memes about mental health struggles subvert the happiness effect.
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People perceive mental health memes as authentic, as representations of who they are and how they feel. As PhD researcher at Tilburg University Lucie Chateau writes, "The meaning to be reconstructed in a depression meme consists in peeling back the layer that demands from us to act as the best, happiest, version of ourselves online. Simply put, it unmasks the actual authentic self behind the curated one."
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