If you logged onto Tumblr for the first time as a tween without knowing what depression was, you certainly weren’t going to log off without learning. If you weren’t a teenager on Tumblr in the early 2010s, it’s difficult even to describe how insane the content was regarding depression and mental health issues. It was a nearly constant conversation, with Tumblr users sharing graphic details of their experiences with self-harm and suicide. Sure, these posts built a community in some aspects, but putting a bunch of depressed teenagers together on an unmonitored website to stew in their sadness shockingly didn’t always lead to the most productive results. 

Luckily not all memes about mental illness are toxic. Some of us want to express our mental health struggles through funny images we can all relate to. We’re not 13 years old anymore: we don’t need to compete with each other to see who has the more harrowing life. All we need now is a Lexapro prescription and some comforting memes.