Epoch Times - How Mental Illness Became an Identity

March 19, 2026 - Epoch Times

02:13

How Mental Illness Became an Identity | JD Haltigan

JD Haltigan argues that mental illness has shifted from a stigmatized condition requiring help to a valorized identity defining one's heroism, particularly regarding depression, anxiety, and ADHD. Driven by social media affirmation, this trend transforms disorders into positive traits, creating feedback loops where individuals adopt these identities for community belonging rather than seeking treatment to resolve underlying issues. Ultimately, Haltigan suggests this dynamic encourages self-definition by pathology instead of addressing root causes, fundamentally altering how society perceives psychological struggles. [Automatically generated summary]
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Time	Text
Mental Illness Becoming Valorized 00:02:13
	Yeah, mental illness as identity is really something that is is is coming on.
	So this sort of idea that mental illness, rather than being stigmatized in a good way in the sense that look, if someone is suffering from mental illness, we typically would say they need help.
	They need to be treated.
	What's happening now is the mental illness is becoming valorized.
	So It's being seen as sort of a positive almost in terms of I have a disorder, I am defined by that disorder, and I'm some sort of a heroic person for having this disorder.
	And it's really happening across the disorders, mostly for the mood disorders like depression and anxiety.
	But what's happening in the public space is that the disorder is being, there's been such a big destigmatization push around mental illness that it's become just the opposite now.
	It's become valorized and it's become so destigmatized that there is no stigma.
	There is no sort of when you have a mental health issue, it is a problem.
	But now it's becoming completely valorized and sort of a heroic thing to have a disorder, say you have it, say you have ADHD.
	You see this, I think, a lot on social media.
	And I published a paper discussing that where there's sort of this idea that if you're on social media and you claim disability or you claim you have a mood disorder, you get a lot of affirmation for that.
	And so that feeds back into the first, you know, one of the first reasons they might have the disorders.
	You're feeling lonely, you're feeling sad, you're feeling depressed.
	But by becoming an identity that's defined by the disorder, you get into this sort of niche group that valorizes it and affirms it, and that's not really helpful treatment to eliminate the disorder or eliminate the problem.

Time

Text

Mental Illness Becoming Valorized 00:02:13

Yeah, mental illness as identity is really something that is is is coming on.

So this sort of idea that mental illness, rather than being stigmatized in a good way in the sense that look, if someone is suffering from mental illness, we typically would say they need help.

They need to be treated.

What's happening now is the mental illness is becoming valorized.

So It's being seen as sort of a positive almost in terms of I have a disorder, I am defined by that disorder, and I'm some sort of a heroic person for having this disorder.

And it's really happening across the disorders, mostly for the mood disorders like depression and anxiety.

But what's happening in the public space is that the disorder is being, there's been such a big destigmatization push around mental illness that it's become just the opposite now.

It's become valorized and it's become so destigmatized that there is no stigma.

There is no sort of when you have a mental health issue, it is a problem.

But now it's becoming completely valorized and sort of a heroic thing to have a disorder, say you have it, say you have ADHD.

You see this, I think, a lot on social media.

And I published a paper discussing that where there's sort of this idea that if you're on social media and you claim disability or you claim you have a mood disorder, you get a lot of affirmation for that.

And so that feeds back into the first, you know, one of the first reasons they might have the disorders.

You're feeling lonely, you're feeling sad, you're feeling depressed.

But by becoming an identity that's defined by the disorder, you get into this sort of niche group that valorizes it and affirms it, and that's not really helpful treatment to eliminate the disorder or eliminate the problem.