Mental Health cannot be a Clickbait Strategy for Influencers !— Ethical Marketing
Influencers have resorted to posting on their Mental health journey as a Clickbait Strategy to attract sympathy likes.
Yes, This is an ironic blog!
Anxiety and depression can really shake your life if you don't pay attention to it. Suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, morning sickness, fear of almost everything, etc. are some of the major symptoms but not always the same for every person.
Personal Story Alert: It was a 9-year silent struggle that saw the light in Nov 2017 when I finally decided to get psychiatric help moving away from counselling sessions that weren’t actually helping me. The pain inside was gruesome, I had multiple shots of antidepressants to calm my state of being. I was admitted to the hospital because I couldn’t eat nor sleep. The pain was invisible. I used to have a dozen antidepressants every day, affecting my physical health, like weight gain, etc. Only my close friends knew about this at its serious (Final) stages.
Now don’t get sympathetic! Everyone's got their own struggle. I don't intend to demean the struggle of another person by making my story a sympathetic blockbuster.
Now, I am much happier in life and I can finally do the things that I wanted to do. To go a little bit deeper into my happiness journey, I felt that the hyperactive child in me reincarnated, though the devil relentlessly pays a courtesy call once in a while!
So, does this achievement/cure give me the privilege to boast myself? Like I said this is an Ironic Blog. Only with irony, I can enter your thought process.
I could do a public speech, an inspirational talk, guide someone through the journey BUT only to get them cured and pursue their dreams NOT to brag about their journey. Reiterating again, This is an ironic blog! I find a lot of Social media personalities who win sympathy engagement by just sharing their journey. If this is a strategy they use to win sponsored content, then its a question of ethics they hold.
This person's story is inspiring but she/he has gone ahead to get herself/himself a verified account on Instagram and YouTube. The business was built around sympathy. She talks extensively about her pain, her symptoms and her thought process.
You have relief centres and rehab centres that take a different approach, an approach where they are empathetic about your condition and not you being sympathetic about them. Does that make sense?
Mental health is now given equal importance and the stigma around mental health is fading away. It is being treated equivalent to a physical ailment. So can I brag about my journey towards recovering from a migraine condition that I had for over 18 years and make a business around it? Imagine my Instagram feed then... LOL!
Yes, I can inspire people but not make money out of it, right?
So, if you are suffering from any mental health problem, have some determination, get yourself counselled by an expert to understand what the issue is and you are going to recover soon in your own way. But once you have recovered which you will, please go and pursue your dreams and not brag about your mental health journey and make money out of it. This is not only an unethical activity but also an insensitive thing to do as other people suffering from a similar problem would be triggered by your words. This journey always will be your personal one which no one is going to understand.
Now, I want the feeling of irony that you have built while reading this blog to fade away. So I am making this as a free blog to read and it will not generate any income for me. And if you know someone who has gone ahead to make money through sympathy, send this article to them as a private message.
The reason why I shared my personal story to the public is that it no longer affects me (touch wood) and I know that the journey can be tough. And I have the capacity to empathise with the people who are trying to run their social media handles and public personality building activities around this. To remind the people who are suffering that there is something good waiting for them!
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