On tumblr, a blogging website, there over 300 million visitors daily and approximately 207 million blogs. This means that the images of dramatically skinny girls and boys, people with scars and a razor, and even pill bottles are plastered all over the website. In addition, the message that self-harm is okay is in peoples’ minds, so there is no longer a major effort to stop it. The people re-blogging these images and messages are supporting depression and self-harm.

Self-harm is a broad term. It can range from cutting, to using dangerous drugs, to starving oneself. There are many ways to hurt oneself, and people suffering from mental disorders such as depression take advantage of that.

It is becoming a popular craze to be dark, mysterious, and emotional. This leads to the term “depression” being overused and beautified. Teenage girls and boys self-diagnose themselves with depression because they are stressed, hurt, sad, or even confused because they want to feel different but the same. All people feel the need to be different; however, all people also want to be somewhat the same and accepted in society. The new fad is to be depressed and to self-harm, despite there being no clear reason to.

Websites such as tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, and even Facebook tend to glorify and romanticize the idea of depression and self-harm. The spotlight on self-harm is one of dark beauty. However, the cold, hard truth is that self-harm is neither beautiful nor romantic. Self-harm is desperate and sorrowful.

People view self-harm as something it is not at all. Self-harm is not polished, loving, nor beautifully romantic. Self-harm is messy, painful, and demoralizing.

Self-harm is also taken so lightly. It went from being a subject that no one talked about, to a subject that everyone must join in on. Girls and boys without mental disorders participate in this horrible activity just to go along with the crowd. It may seem like everyone has depression and eating disorders. However, only 1 in 12 teenagers truly suffers from depression. To go along with that, only about 20% of teenagers suffer from eating disorders.

The glorification of self-harm and mental disorders are truthfully offensive to those really suffering from them. It puts the honest people in a box, unable to talk about their problems without being brushed off by everyone claiming the same problems. Also, the horrible images all over tumblr remind people of their problems and encourages them not to get better.

“I think people who glorify self-harm are idiots. People don’t look at terrorism and glorify that. They’re scared of that. I think it’s gotten way too much attention for all the wrong reasons,” said Jake Leto, a student at Chippewa Valley High School.