Framing everything in terms of mental health is one of those things were I can't tell if people are participating in some kind of mass social joke, or are serious.
I think it is a little of both :) Emotional support animals are a real thing, but they are expensive and require a lot of maintenance and there are limits on where they may be taken. Stuffed animals can make people feel better for similar reasons, it's a companion to "talk to" or a nice familiar sight, and they have a lot lower bar to ownership than real animals do. So a stuffed animal can be reasonably considered to be in the same category as a real emotional support animal, but they are obviously a lot less serious than a real animal. So it's fun and funny to choose an animal with a bit of silliness and humor to it, like a chicken.
It is a joke, yeah, but it can also be a mood booster. So it's both.
Speaking of the benefits of someone to "talk to", programmers have long known the benefits of rubber duck debugging, in speaking aloud the problem (to an inanimate object) to help align their thinking.
Perhaps we all could benefit from some knitted Coding Support Chickens?
There are also obviously some people that take advantage of the rules around emotional support animals. Like Great Danes on airplanes (second hand anecdote). So the effect is that people tend to suspect everyone is taking advantage. There are even a ton of services to make it super easy to classify a pet as an emotional support animal. So, I am all for these ridiculous chickens. Might buy some for my kids (I am not into knitting).
> We are in a time where it's fashionable to have mental health issues. It's very strange
I'd argue it isn't. The first edition of the DSM was published in 1952 [1]. This is right after "the routine annual comprehensive physical examination (PE) became a fixture in American medical practice" [2].
Add 25 years for a generation to be educated, another 25 for the old guard to retire, and you'd expect the paradigm shift around mental health to land around the millenium. Unless you have evidence we had a nonlinear jump between then and now, I'd argue the trend is analagous to folks becoming aware of and culturally assimilating the concept of blood type.
People have been stigmatized and isolated for generations for being “different” in some way. Emotional and psychological reasons included. People are all different. We all have different issues. We all have different experiences. No one should be shunned for seeking out others with similarities to get advice and support. And how can you do that without making people aware?
Do we have more mental health issues than in the past? I don’t think so. I think we’re more aware and more accepting than past generations.
I've seen this plenty of times, young people almost boasting about their diagnosis like the old upper class used to be proud of gout
Some health care professionals are becoming hesitant to talk about diagnoses because it hurts the patient when they start identifying with the diagnosis it makes the condition worse when the patient starts to act more like the diagnosed condition because that's how they're supposed to act
I'm curious what you think counts as "framing in terms of mental health." Or more interestingly, if you think this article constitutes "framing in terms of mental health," I'm curious what you wouldn't consider as such.
This article does use words related to mental states, like "comforting" and "relaxing." But that's pretty difficult to avoid in most writing of non-trivial length.
The name they've decided to give these, "emergency" chickens, knitting them for hurricane survivors. It's all a step up from just "we like these and they're nice" and into "these are Helpful with a capital H".
My point is exactly that that kind of thing reads like a joking exaggeration, but this sort of approach to things is really common now and I truly have trouble telling when people are joking or being serious about it. Most of it reads like joking to me, but I don't know. It's also been going on long enough that it's making me wonder even more, since, judged as a joke, it was played out and over-done years ago.
I would say the topic framed in terms of mental health. For one, the chicken itself is called an "emotional support chicken" - this itself is indicative of cultural currency. The idea and purpose of a knit chicken can be framed in many ways. It can be simply fun, creative, or artistic. In this case the purpose is psychologically palliative opposed to recreational. It is medicalized. You see this elsewhere. A day off work to rest, relax, and enjoy isn't just vacation (which also implies these concepts), but a mental health day.
One of the leading stories in the article is about delivering them to survivors of Hurricane Helene - an interesting linguistic choice in its own right (Helene impacted roughly 2 million people, killing about 200. It had a 99.995% survival rate).
I suspect most people make these chickens simply for fun and decoration.
In this case for me its is it really an emotional support chicken? Or it is just a cuddly chicken that people like and find enjoyment from.
Not everything that brings people joy is an emotional support xxx.
Similar to saying you have OCD because you double checked if you switched your iron off. It's not obsessive compulsive you just double checked something.
coldpie|9 months ago
It is a joke, yeah, but it can also be a mood booster. So it's both.
Tiktaalik|9 months ago
Perhaps we all could benefit from some knitted Coding Support Chickens?
dumbfounder|9 months ago
LandR|9 months ago
JumpCrisscross|9 months ago
I'd argue it isn't. The first edition of the DSM was published in 1952 [1]. This is right after "the routine annual comprehensive physical examination (PE) became a fixture in American medical practice" [2].
Add 25 years for a generation to be educated, another 25 for the old guard to retire, and you'd expect the paradigm shift around mental health to land around the millenium. Unless you have evidence we had a nonlinear jump between then and now, I'd argue the trend is analagous to folks becoming aware of and culturally assimilating the concept of blood type.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Man...
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK82767/
jagged-chisel|9 months ago
People have been stigmatized and isolated for generations for being “different” in some way. Emotional and psychological reasons included. People are all different. We all have different issues. We all have different experiences. No one should be shunned for seeking out others with similarities to get advice and support. And how can you do that without making people aware?
Do we have more mental health issues than in the past? I don’t think so. I think we’re more aware and more accepting than past generations.
colechristensen|9 months ago
Some health care professionals are becoming hesitant to talk about diagnoses because it hurts the patient when they start identifying with the diagnosis it makes the condition worse when the patient starts to act more like the diagnosed condition because that's how they're supposed to act
lowhighseco|9 months ago
dylan604|9 months ago
pjc50|9 months ago
tshaddox|9 months ago
This article does use words related to mental states, like "comforting" and "relaxing." But that's pretty difficult to avoid in most writing of non-trivial length.
alabastervlog|9 months ago
My point is exactly that that kind of thing reads like a joking exaggeration, but this sort of approach to things is really common now and I truly have trouble telling when people are joking or being serious about it. Most of it reads like joking to me, but I don't know. It's also been going on long enough that it's making me wonder even more, since, judged as a joke, it was played out and over-done years ago.
s1artibartfast|9 months ago
One of the leading stories in the article is about delivering them to survivors of Hurricane Helene - an interesting linguistic choice in its own right (Helene impacted roughly 2 million people, killing about 200. It had a 99.995% survival rate).
I suspect most people make these chickens simply for fun and decoration.
NoPicklez|9 months ago
Not everything that brings people joy is an emotional support xxx.
Similar to saying you have OCD because you double checked if you switched your iron off. It's not obsessive compulsive you just double checked something.
Bender|9 months ago
tokai|9 months ago
unknown|9 months ago
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unknown|9 months ago
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