Happy Mental Health Awareness Bullshit Month!
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Did you know that May is Mental Health Awareness Month?
Did you know that #itsokaytonotbeokay?
Did you know that some hot supermodel killed herself even though she was a hot supermodel?
Did you know that Ariana Grande speaks out to end the stigma around mental health?
Did you know that there’s a #youthmentalhealthcrisis in America? Probably other places, too, but who cares? AMERICA FIRST!
Did you know that #istsokaytonotbeokay?
Oh, shit, I already said that. That’s okay! Let’s #regram it again, for those in the back who haven’t already seen it regurgitated one thousand and sixty-seven times on every ineffectual, regurgitory #mentalhealth sm account!
Did you know that June is Jaded, Snarky-Ass Motherfucker Awareness Month? I’m celebrating early.
I’m sure I’m not the first person to opine thusly, but these #awareness months, weeks, days, leap-years cheapen what they’re supposed to elevate. I don’t think there’s a single soul who isn’t #aware of mental health, particularly during the pandemic. There are just people who give a shit about it, and people who don’t, and May isn’t going to change that for anybody.
It’s interesting to me that Mental Health Awareness Month first came into being in 1949, back when we were still lobotomizing people left and right in this country and locking them away in long-term asylums that were rife with abuse and negligence. So that kind of tells you how meaningful this sort of “awareness” is. Back in 1949, we were enthusiastically treating homosexuality as a “mental disorder” and ostracizing pretty much anybody who wasn’t cis-het. Oh wait — that’s becoming fashionable again. But how can that be? We’re so #aware!
But, today, even in Donald Trump’s #fuckyourfeelings America, we’re celebrating #mentalhealthawarenessmonth with all the piss and vinegar we can muster. We’re posting memes about therapy and about how important it is to reach out (to whom? I guess not to a #fuckyourfeelings person) if you’re struggling (who isn’t?) and posting the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Crisis Text Line and letting people know that it’s okay to not be okay till we’re blue in the balls. Maybe…
