We as humans need to take care of ourselves, both physically and mentally. Therapy can help our emotional well-being a great deal, and many of us know that. In fact, statistics show that about 30% of Americans have seen a therapist at least once in their lives.
Sometimes, some internet humor can help us as well. That's what pages like My Therapist Says are for. Some mental health-related jokes, memes, and funny quips to deal with your own imminent mental breakdown are always handy.
To find out more about laughing through your anxieties and other mental health problems, Bored Panda reached out to Nicole Arzt, therapist, author, founder of Soul of Therapy LLC, and the face behind Psychotherapy Memes. Check out our conversation with her below about destigmatizing mental health issues one meme at a time!
More info: My Therapist Says
Nicole Arzt | Soul of Therapy | Psychotherapy Memes | Sometimes Therapy Is Awkward
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As of 2024, the My Therapist Says Instagram page has over eight million followers. What started off as a group chat between four girlfriends has evolved into a supportive community with many laughs and even advice. The founders of the page, Nicole Argiris and sisters Lola, Gina, and Nora Tash, even wrote a book: "My Therapist Says: Advice You Should Probably (Not) Follow."
The girls describe their page as a place to share "original memes about struggles with anxiety, growing up in the social media generation, and figuring your life out in general." The core message they want to share with the world is that "No matter who you are, dealing with all the tribulations of life, you're never alone and never as 'crazy' as you think."
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The four friends, who all grew up in Toronto, Canada, have been in therapy for many years. In their group chat, they often would share advice with each other, starting with the phrase, "Well, my therapist said..." That's what inspired the name of the Instagram page.
"Our therapist, of course, said no such thing, but we thought that it legitimized the advice to the point where we would have to take it," Lola Tash said in an interview with The Daily Mail in 2020. "It was always with the best intentions that we were giving each other advice."
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The girls say their goal is to destigmatize mental health, "finding the humor in the mistakes their mental health journeys have led them on." And many experts agree that the more we talk about how we're not okay, the less stigma there is around it. Therapist and author Nicole Arzt echoes that sentiment, saying that even sharing memes can be a great way to open up about your struggles.
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"Mental health issues are often wrapped in shame," Arzt told Bored Panda. "That shame often says, 'I'm alone in this. Nobody else understands. Something is deeply wrong with me.' While memes don't exactly 'fix' that real pain, they can provide a sense of shared camaraderie. There's such a powerful validation in just knowing you're not alone and that your struggles are not solely yours."
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Arzt provides therapy sessions for mental health professionals. She even runs the Psychotherapy Memes Instagram account, so she's not a stranger to the ways the internet jokes around about their mental health. She says that humor can sometimes even be helpful during therapy sessions.
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"Humor is a great way to build and maintain rapport. Therapy is a vulnerable process," Arzt explains. You're sharing some of your rawest stories and deepest pains with another person, and that can feel scary! Humor sometimes creates a necessary lightness amid all that heavy work."
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However, there's a time and place for humor in a therapy session. "At the same time, we want to be mindful of deflecting with humor," Nicole points out. "Humor shouldn't be used as a way to avoid feelings or emotional processing. This can perpetuate avoidance patterns."
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Nicole also cautions against coping with mental health issues through jokes and memes. "Mental health issues are so serious and can be life-threatening," she reiterates. "There's nothing inherently funny about them. But, paradoxically, it can feel bold to choose to examine your greatest struggles and laugh a bit about them."
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Arzt also emphasizes the importance of community and connection when joking around with others. "If you can laugh with another person, that's even better," she told Bored Panda. "That connection matters, it's so important. It doesn't take away the pain. It just shifts some of the energy around in a way where the pain may not feel so isolating or debilitating."
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So, Pandas, what do your therapists tell you? Do you have any ill-advised funny quips to share with us? Or maybe one of the memes on this list hit particularly close to home and elicited a belly laugh out of you? Don't be shy, and let us know in the comments!
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