By Ada Kessler

It’s no secret that in recent years mental health has become a much less stigmatized topic.  

Following the pandemic, people became more open to discussing their mental health struggles and social media gave people the platform to do so. It showed people their struggles weren’t singular and opened the door to deeper mental health discussions, not just online.

This trend has continued, especially on TikTok, where people tend to discuss their mental health struggles. These people use TikTok similarly to a diary where they vent about their darkest feelings, except the general public has complete access to them, causing the popularization of mental health awareness on social media.

It’s true this leads to deeper discussions about mental health which can have many positive effects, such as people discovering a mental health issue they may find relatable, leading them to research it more.

However, there is a very harmful effect of the popularization of mental health on social media that few take into account. With the popularization of mental health, mental health terms gain that same popularity and therefore often get misused.

Some of the most prominent terms on TikTok in the past year or so are intrusive thoughts, “delulu” deriving from delusion, and non-verbal. These terms are used frequently and very rarely correctly.

To begin, intrusive thoughts are defined as “unwanted thoughts, images, impulses, or urges that can occur spontaneously or that can be cued by external/internal stimuli” by The OCD and Anxiety Center. These thoughts tend to be associated with OCD, but they can happen to anyone. 

They typically concern the thought of harming others or yourself in some form, even though these feelings aren’t actually true to the person experiencing them, hence being intrusive. On TikTok, the term intrusive thoughts has become synonymous with impulsive or poorly thought-out actions.

So, when people discuss their “intrusive thoughts,” it is very often something frivolous such as dying their hair at home or swiftly making a large purchase. These are a different phenomenon entirely, called impulsive thoughts, yet people switch out the terms as if they’re the same.

A similar situation occurs with the term “delulu” which comes from the word delusional. People on TikTok would often claim to be “delulu” over love and whether another person reciprocates those feelings.

This is nothing like what being clinically delusional is like. Being delusional is part of  serious mental illness in which people can’t distinguish what is real and what isn’t according to webmd.com 

When terms like intrusive thoughts and “delulu” are thrown around, it adds stigma to the actual experiences. By throwing these terms around in much less severe cases, it invalidates what people with these feelings truly go through. It turns important mental health matters into silly little jokes for all to laugh at.

This in turn creates an unsafe environment to talk about these issues. When people water down these terms, it becomes harder to have real conversations about them.

 If everyone else thinks of intrusive thoughts as simply quick-acting thoughts, when experiences of actual intrusive thoughts are discussed, they’ll be shunned. The same goes for people who are “delulu” versus people who are clinically delusional.

On the other hand, people generally use the term nonverbal correctly. These people typically use the term to describe how they go quiet after draining events such as parties. Using nonverbal in this way isn’t technically incorrect, but it glamorizes the experience. 

Being nonverbal is often associated with autism. Oftentimes, autistic people go nonverbal when they are overwhelmed or shutting down. Nonverbal autism is also a subtype of autism in which the person affected is unable to talk or talks minimally. 

When people use this term on TikTok, they make being nonverbal seem like something relatable that is done after social events which takes away the true effects of nonverbal behavior. It paints being nonverbal as something that happens to everyone and not a serious medical condition in which some people may actually never speak.

While this topic may seem superficial, the misuse of mental terms can sneak its way into everyday life, e.g., gaslighting. Before a few years ago, the term gaslighting was essentially unheard of. It was nowhere near as common as it is now. 

In roughly 2022, the use of the term gaslighting skyrocketed. While there’s no solid evidence this growth came from social media, it is likely that as TikTok was growing as a platform, more previously unfamiliar terms were brought to the public.

Now, in 2024, most people know what gaslighting is and just like the other terms, it has lost its meaning. An article by Vogue states, ‘Too often we substitute “liar” for “gaslighter.”’ With how popular the term has become, people aren’t taken seriously when they discuss how they’re being gaslighted.

This misuse of gaslighting didn’t stay on social media, so why would other misused terms? As these misused terms get used more frequently, they will leave social media and enter everyday life just as gaslighting did.

If, or more likely, when, this happens, the people experiencing what these terms truly talk about will be made into jokes. The average person will discredit their experiences as “that term that got popular because of TikTok.” It will enhance the stigma surrounding these terms, and moreover, mental health as a whole.

If the misuse of mental health terms continues, the effects will be detrimental for mentally ill individuals.