When talking to friends, or scrolling through TikTok or Instagram, it’s quite often that you hear the words “gaslighting,” “trauma,” or “trigger,” – among others – to describe certain behaviors and experiences. However, is it wrong to think that these terms are being overused to the point where they’re losing their meaning?
Over the past few years, the conversation around mental health has grown a lot. According to a survey done by HealthPartners, “results show that there has been a statistically significant decrease in [mental health] stigma among survey respondents.” This destigmatization can be partly credited to increased education concerning mental health issues, which is absolutely incredible for those who deal with illnesses of that kind. On the flip side, that means that, due to the nature of the internet, terms for certain experiences or conditions have broadened to an extent – and may have even become a little diluted.
This phenomenon is known by experts as “concept creep.” According to Neuroscience News, concept creep is “the historical tendency for harm-related concepts to expand their meanings.” Take the word boundary, for example. Recently, actor Jonah Hill came under fire for demanding that his ex-girlfriend, professional surfer Sarah Brady, take down all photos of her in a bathing suit and not surf with other men, citing those as his “boundaries,” according to the New York Post. However, therapists claim this was a misuse of the word.
Therapist Jeff Geunther explains, “A boundary is a healthy limit a person sets for themselves to protect their well-being and integrity…It is a rule or guideline that one creates to identify reasonable, safe and permissible ways for others to behave towards them, and how they’ll respond when someone passes those limits.” In the case of Hill and Brady, the term boundary is misused. Instead of setting a reasonable guideline for his partner, Hill tried to dictate that Brady, a surfer, could not have pictures of herself in a bathing suit and could not surf with men, when that is quite literally her job. That is not a boundary; that is plain jealousy.
Now, there is no doubt that the use of therapy-speak can be good. For example, someone may be able to identify problems from a past experience, figure out symptoms for possible diagnosis, and be able to learn to communicate in a healthy way. However, this is not the same as manipulating and bending a term’s definition to fit an experience that has nothing to do with it.
Breaking up with your partner doesn’t make you narcissistic. A mom leaving her child alone outside for 10 minutes does not make her neglectful. The use of therapy-speak should be used with good intentions, not for making yourself sound like a barely-qualified therapist.