You don’t have “casual depression” because it’s a concept that doesn’t actually exist. Teenagers in recent years have begun labeling their casual sadness or temporary mood swings as depression, but overuse of the term threatens to diminish the seriousness of real mental health issues that people struggle with every day. Teens senselessly tell their friends they hate life or comment that they want to “KMS,” an abbreviation for suicide, but they forget about those who truly struggle every day with thoughts of self-harm.
“It’s almost like taking the sting out of something,” said guidance counselor Crystal Tremarolli. “There is a major difference between heavy emotions and suicidal ideations.”
Depression is a serious mental health condition that requires understanding and proper care, but it’s important to recognize that short periods of casual sadness are a normal part of life. Teens must distinguish between temporary feelings of sadness and clinical depression. Normalizing dangerous language surrounding suicide and self-harm is ignorant. Teens who truly struggle with suicide and self-harm find it increasingly more difficult to speak out about their struggles when people continuously make jokes about throwing themselves out of windows, or saying that they would rather kill themselves than do their homework. This language should not be normalized nor made a habit for teens.
Nearly 24,000 college students in the United States attempt suicide every year, according to info from nonprofit therapy group Council for Relationships published in October 2024. Of those, 1,100 students die by suicide.
The idea that every student who expresses a desire to “kill themselves” fully understands those 24,000 students’ attempts is difficult to believe. The rising appeal and prevalence of dark humor that makes light of mental health and thoughts of self-harm is, in itself, worrying, but it feels especially vindictive and hurtful in light of sobering statistics about actual statistics on suicide. But perhaps part of the problem is that modern society tends not to talk directly to young people about the realities of these darker parts of mental health. Of course, some people are not going to take such matters seriously: as a society, we’ve been “babied” by certain adults on such real-world matters and problems, or on little things like their school work or friendship problems. Our generation should not need to be coddled.
Schools can try to help counteract this cynicism. , like with the assemblies that people fall asleep in, or by putting the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on the back of our IDs, but they maneuver around accepting the fact that school is the cherry on top when it comes to teens with real clinical depression. School opens up new doors for depression to walk through in students, like academic pressures, social challenges, beauty standards, and even competition. Piling workload, insecurities, and anxiety on top of depression is making things worse.
“Teens use those terms very loosely to cover a broad range of emotions that aren’t clinical,” said Tremarolli. “I think it takes away from what it really is when people have it seriously.”
If you are struggling with clinical depression, take time for yourself, find something that you enjoy and stick with it. Truly try to separate yourself from people or spaces that contribute to your sadness. may seem inevitable at times, and that is OK. Taking small steps, even when you feel like everything is getting worse, is very important. Talking to someone you trust is most important, which is what someone who isn’t struggling with depression would say; They just don’t realize it is easier said than done to speak out about depression. That being said, once you feel up to it, it is in fact very important to talk to someone who you know will actually want to help you. The dead ends feel never-ending with depression and finding a way out is challenging to say the least, especially when people make jokes about it, undermining the gravity of depression.
If people you know make jokes about wanting to harm themselves frequently and it makes you uncomfortable, I don’t expect you to sit down and have a heart-to-heart about suicide with them because very few people nowadays would even be up to that, but at least tell them it is wrong, very wrong.
Photo credit: “Sad-Mental-Illness” by Fotorech is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal.
