Mental health conversations are flooding social media platforms today. A single scroll through our feeds is enough to be bombarded with feel-good quotes, quick fixes, and psychological ‘hacks’ that promise to improve our psychological well-being. But do these discussions truly help us heal?
Seerut K. Chawla, a psychotherapist and founder of The Trenches, joins Jameela Jamil to answer this big question in the I Weigh podcast episode “Unpacking Pop Psychology”. In this blog post, we’ll rely on their insights to reveal the true impact of pop psychology on our understanding of mental health.
This conversation is a wake-up call about the good, the bad, and the tricky parts of our current mental health culture.
How Has the Mental Health Industry Changed?
A few decades ago, back when personal struggles were considered taboo for society, talking openly about your mental health was stigmatized. The Millennials kept their vulnerabilities hidden, worried about showing any signs of weakness for one major reason — they were raised by parents who taught them to “toughen up” and not talk about their feelings.
But things have changed and the script has flipped — today mental health is a central part of our public identity. The mental health industry is now huge. Wellness coaches, so-called personality gurus, influencers, and even celebrities use social media platforms to encourage society to make our mental health a big part of who we are and share it openly.
At first glance, this rise in mental health seems empowering. It’s hard to access professional therapists everywhere, so why don’t you take advantage of this type of content, right?
Well, in reality, this can sometimes do more harm than good, and here’s why:
With so much advice out there, it’s easy to get lost or to take things the wrong way. Modern psychology has become an industry that sometimes blurs the lines between genuine care and commodification and even worse — it oversimplifies our well-being. As a result:
- People may misuse or misunderstand all this information available on the internet.
- Seeking support online might stop people from getting the real help they need.
- Focusing too much on mental health labels can lead to ignoring the real personal problems someone has.
- Advice on social media that’s meant for everyone might not fit your own unique situation.
- It’s making people susceptible to harm — trying too hard to protect our mental health might actually make us more likely to get hurt because we’re not facing our problems.
As Seerut K. Chawla notes, avoiding triggers and focusing on quick fixes can be helpful in the short term. But we won’t be prepared for the inevitable challenges life throws at us.
How Social Media Represents Mental Health
Is social media giving us a realistic picture of mental health, or is it leading us in the wrong direction?
This is one of the main questions Jameela Jamil and Seerut K. Chawla tried to cover in the podcast. In today’s age of information, it’s hard to filter our feeds from misleading cues and quick-fix advice on mental health. As a result, people often substitute professional care with readily available but not always reliable resources online.
Here’s a short summary of the way social media represents mental wellness and the potential risks that come with consuming psychological content without critically assessing it.
Oversimplification (or “DIY” mindset) of mental health
Mental health isn’t simple. It’s a mix of our feelings, thoughts, actions, and what we’ve been through. But online, it’s often made to seem easy. We’re just told to take care of ourselves. And for this, we should find help in a blog post, a video, or a pretty picture with an inspiring quote.
The reality?
A single post of step-by-step instructions can’t solve your childhood trauma and won’t help you overcome complex issues such as OCD, personality disorders, PTSD, or depression. It’s true that some popular techniques, like guided meditation or practicing gratitude, might ease some symptoms. But pop psychology often reduces complex mental health issues to quick sayings that sound good but don’t really help us understand what’s going on inside us.
Chawla uses the term “coddling” to describe how social media treats mental health — a method similar to overly protective parenting. In fact, every time we scroll Instagram, we encounter motivational phrases such as “you’re enough”, “you deserve happiness”, “set boundaries”, “don’t gaslight yourself into thinking you’re lazy,” etc.
As she explains, these messages impact us exactly as overprotective parents — they force us to think that we can heal all wounds with self-care and positive thinking instead of going to therapy. But, just like with coddling, this can leave us unprepared for the real world’s challenges.
“Safety culture” and “echo chambers”
We live in a time where identifying ourselves as victims has become a natural part of who we are. Chawla blames the media for this problem and introduces the concept of “safety culture” — an environment where people are taught to see themselves as fragile, where encountering offensive material is viewed not as a part of life but as a harmful experience that could destroy one’s well-being.
This tendency is especially common on US college campuses. In fact, students often avoid processing tough topics and instead seek comfort in “safe spaces”, which is actually a form of infantilism. Why is this a problem? Because this means we’re too delicate to handle life’s challenging moments.
And this, in turn, might lead to the formation of “echo chambers” — closed networks where everyone agrees and no one is challenged. Social media algorithms make sure to insulate us from opposing views and as a result, our beliefs become more and more narrow.
The truth is that avoiding anyone who disagrees with us isn’t helpful. We need to talk and listen to others, even if they’re different, to really understand the world and grow as people. The first step to this is to accept that bad things happen. However, we can face these problems instead of avoiding them. In simple terms, we can heal more by understanding and connecting with others than by staying in our comfort zones.
Beyond labels and diagnoses
Chawla also points out the importance of a clear understanding of discrete categories in the mental health industry:
“Just because what you went through might not qualify clinically as trauma, doesn’t mean that your pain isn’t important or that it hasn’t impacted you in a significant way.”
And indeed, the distinction between various mental health conditions is critical. For example, the tendency to label all distressing experiences as trauma or PTSD blurs the lines between individual experiences.
On the one hand, it’s wrong to label everything as “trauma” — there are people who’ve been through extreme experiences like war or abuse, and their experiences might be on a completely different scale. On the other hand, it’s equally important to acknowledge that less intense experiences can still have a profound effect on an individual’s mental health. That’s why we should carefully use psychological terms in everyday language.
However, it’s crucial to identify these conditions in clinical settings to ensure that each person gets the tailored support they need. Thus, while it’s important to avoid stigmatizing mental health issues, we must also avoid a reductive approach that could obscure the depth and complexity of individual experiences.
Her aim is clear: to enable people to move beyond the limits of diagnoses and to encourage the mental health industry to focus on healing rather than categorizing or commodifying suffering.
Why pop psychology isn’t real psychology
The key point of Jamil’s and Chawla’s discussion is that after all, pop psychology is not really psychology. And in order to explain this, they discuss a few common misconceptions from the modern mental health industry:
- Every unpleasant experience is not trauma — not all types of adversity lead to profound psychological distress.
- Everyone you just dislike is not a narcissist — this term is specific to a clinical disorder and not a synonym for someone who is self-centered.
- Having needs does not make you codependent and not all kinds of dependency should be demonized — it’s a natural part of human relationships to rely on others at times.
- Disagreement isn’t gaslighting — having a different perspective doesn’t mean you’re manipulating people.
- Not every situation requires rigid boundaries — this makes us lose sight of the nuanced human need for connection. You don’t always need to be number one. Sometimes, it’s okay to sacrifice your needs for your loved ones.
Unfortunately, most of these concepts have been popularized by a media landscape driven by profit. They provide exaggerated headlines for one simple reason:
Social media platforms work like the brain — they emphasize danger to help people predict and protect. But doing this in the wrong way strengthens our evolutionary bias toward noticing and remembering negative experiences rather than positive ones.
The result is our tendency to choose simplistic answers for complex emotional states without further self-exploration or critical thought.
Why Do We Need Qualified Mental Health Professionals?
These misconceptions that often populate social media and casual conversations about psychology point out one thing:
The irreplaceable role of qualified mental health professionals who can explore the individual problems you’re dealing with, provide accurate diagnoses, and create evidence-based treatment plans suitable for your personal needs.
Let’s finish this blog with the key takeaways from the podcast about unpacking pop psychology:
- You can’t trust everything you read online, especially when it comes to your mental health. Social media is packed with feel-good quotes and quick fixes, but real issues need more than just a scroll-through solution.
- Building emotional resilience requires facing challenges, not just avoiding triggers or seeking comfort in “safe spaces”.
- Real psychology isn’t only about labels and hashtags — you need to understand the nuances of your mental health condition.
After reading this article, you may feel that the self-help tips and trivialized solutions you frequently find on social media aren’t enough to address your mental health complexities. If that’s the case, it may be time to think about getting professional help.
Our licensed therapists at Health for Life Counseling are here to offer you the informed, empathetic support that you deserve. You can either reach out to us at our offices in Grand Rapids, MI, and Ada, MI, or schedule your therapy online. In either case, contacting our professional counselors is your first step towards authentic healing and, most importantly, your lasting psychological well-being.
