Brett Cooper — TikTok Has Turned Mental Illness Into An Accessory

- Well guys, you heard it here first, being part of the L-G-B-T-Q-I-X-Y-Z community is out and being part of the A DHD, bipolar OCD anxiety depression community is in, which really all jokes aside does make me sad because mental illness is a real thing. People struggle through their mental health on a daily basis. But like all things in our modern culture, it has now become so widespread, so mainstream, so normalised, so normalised that now you can scroll through a 10 slide TikTok test to self-diagnose and figure out if you are actually bipolar.

Plus it is glamorised online. It's glamorised in TV shows like euphoria the young people are watching every single day. And so to that I say let's remove the glamorization, make mental health struggles a problem. Again, make them something that is serious that you take seriously, that you are actively working through, that you are fighting to overcome, that you are seeking solutions for, not just moaning about on a podcast or in a 32nd TikTok video.

And that my friends, I think is why Dana White is saying that men should not talk about their feelings. Now, before we dive into all of that, make sure that you like this video. Subscribe to the channel if you've not already. And of course ring that notification bell if you wanna stay up to date on every single thing that we upload here on the Brett Cooper Show. Alright, so what made me want to do this episode today was the fact that Dana White just got a Time Magazine cover.

The majority of this cover profile was obviously about the UFC, the rise of UFC's, you know, success, the upcoming fight at the White House. But he made one comment about masculinity and mental health that ruffled a lot of feathers. And so now this has become the most talked about part of the entire article. So the article rates, cigars, guitars, sports memorabilia, they're all there. Quote, I am unapologetically masculine, white says Men in white's mind never split.

The bill went out to dinner with a woman. Men don't shirk family responsibilities and they never ever vocalise their mental health struggles. Quote, talking about it publicly. I just feel like opens the door to make young men think that it is okay to just effing go, oh, I'm having mental health issues. White says in a mock whiny voice, handle it behind closed doors. Don't show that weakness to anybody and don't call any of this toxic quote.

What is toxic masculinity says white. Who has it? Who's too masculine? The author then replies and says, I suggest that when this attitude begets unjustified violence, you can call it toxic, no quote, then you're a douche bag says white. There's a difference between being a douche bag and being masculine. And on that note, I completely agree. I also just love the way that this article is written. It's written with such disdain and it's very humorous if you actually like Dana White and you know the bias of this reporter and that this reporter definitely does not like Dana White.

But anyway, all of that aside, getting into a back into the topic of mental health, what I found interesting is that now as this quote is going viral, everybody is clipping it, putting it online, is that there was no real consensus among the men in the comments. Like for example, somebody said to an extent he's right, men should talk about their mental health issues with certain people behind closed doors maybe. But coming out in the public about it is just not a good idea as a man.

Another person said, and this is why dudes kill themselves, what if they don't have somebody to talk to behind closed doors? Another man said one of his biggest up and coming talent says the exact opposite. 100 men per day in the US take their own lives. Looking weak is an insane way to put it. It takes tremendous strength to talk about these issues, mostly because people like Dana say that you shouldn't. And I see his point because it's a very strong statement to come out and say, you are essentially a pussy if you talk about your mental health problems, you are weak if you say I need help, just figure it out behind closed doors.

And this commenter again brings up a good point. What if you don't have anybody to talk to about it? Now I'm guessing that this commenter was referring to a fighter in the UFC named Patty Piot, who after losing two of his close friends to suicide, has now dedicated many of his post-fight interviews in the octagon to spreading awareness about mens mental health. And this is what he said after a fight, just days after he learned that one of his friends had died, - I wanna dedicate this fight to little baby Lee, little warrior, but more of a fight than any of us will ever be.

But also I woke up on Friday morning at 4:00 AM through a message, the one of my friends back home and killed themself. This is five hours before me waiting. So Ricky had, that's for you. But there's a stigma in this world that men can't talk. Listen, if you are a man and you've got weight on your shoulders and you think the only way you can solve this by killing yourself, please speak to someone, speak to anyone. People would rather I know, I'd rather me make cry on your shoulder than go to his funeral next week.

So please, let's get rid of this stigma and men start talking. - I mean I've now watched that clip like 10 times as I was putting this episode together. I tear up every single time. It's incredibly powerful. And he is far from the only man in the UFC universe that has used his platform to speak about this. Another fighter, this fighter's name is Khalil Roundtree. He has been open about his own journey, which he talked about here.

I - Feel like I'm on a good track right now just based off of how I feel physically. The mental ups and downs are not as steep right now. And I would say that that's kind of like, that's kind of the place I'm in is I've experienced a lot of highs, I've experienced a lot of lows. I'm still me. So they're still there internally, emotionally. And I'm just really trying to figure out how to kind of like even out the wave versus like this, like the extremes.

'cause I can be very extreme and just really trying to like, you know, stay within that middle ground of of balance. - Now personally, dunno about you guys, but personally I would not call either of those men pussies. I actually think most people would call them inspirations. And just based on the comment sections of those two videos, I think the commenters would agree. For example, one man commented and said he has no idea how powerful this is.

Talking about Patty's speech, absolutely amazing. Another man commenting under Roundtree video said, I've been a fan of Khalil since tough. I can really relate to the guy, humble, honest, down to earth and dedicated, been through adversity with weight and mental health and focusing on finding themselves win or lose. He's still a great fighter. Another commenter, a man said, I have often wondered how many lives this speech saved.

And that comment was in regards to Patty and that type of speech that you guys saw. It is now a speech that he gives often. And this is all an incredibly relevant and important subject because men in this country make up 80% of suicides. They are four times as likely to commit suicide as American women. So all of this to say, just to lay the groundwork for this topic, I do not think that all conversations around mental health are bad or weak.

Obviously some of them are actually very needed. However, that being said, ooh, I do think unfortunately that Dana has a bit of a point based on the way that our current culture wears mental illness as a type of accessory. And if we had not, you know, de-stigmatized and normalised mental health to the point where people are now openly using it as a crutch, it's now this cool community that they wanna be a part of, then I would probably be a lot angrier about his statement.

I would agree with it a lot less. But unfortunately this is just the culture that we live in and I think that he's reacting to that. And because of this culture that has now normalised everything, a lot of times when people are talking about mental health, I roll my eyes and I feel awful about that fact. Like on this note, another commenter under the original Dana Post said this. He said, I'm currently debating writing a book about suicide and mental health.

And as crazy as Dana White sounds, he does have a point. People have attempted to de-stigmatize talking about mental health so much that there is actually a backlash against it. And I hate to say it, it's actually a very crappy feeling, but I agree and that probably comes from my own personal lived experiences. I mean, as you guys probably know by now, I've literally talked about it in yesterday's episode. But I've spent over a decade now watching my older brother fight his own mental health battles.

I've watched him fight schizophrenia for over a decade. I've watched him abuse drugs. I have gone to find him on the street in California where he was homeless. I have watched my dad fight clinical depression for my entire life. I have seen people that I love try to hurt themselves and take their own lives. I personally, on my own journey to work through all of that, spent years in therapy. And honestly, with all of the drastic changes in my life over the last couple of years, I might even be due to go back to therapy to make sure my head is on straight for the future.

But my point being, I have been incredibly entrenched in the mental health world for essentially my entire life. I have watched severe mental illness in action. I have seen people that I know and love fight to take back their lives and heal and overcome. And I have also seen what happens when you do nothing. When you just give in, when you refuse to speak to somebody or seek help, you refuse to even acknowledge that the problem exists and is hurting the people around you.

So I'm sorry, personally, I just don't really love the Gen Zers, the millennials on TikTok who are just so addicted to self diagnosing themselves with disorders from the DSM just so that they can feel like they are a part of something. Because at the end of the day, that's really what it is. And yes, what you just saw is actually happening more than you think it is now. Even being studied, one article reads, we are more anxious and depressed than ever before, or at least talking about it more freely.

But the trendiness of sad online culture may lead to wrongful self diagnoses and an inadvertent civilization of severe illnesses. Quote, more and more teenagers are convinced that depression, anxiety and ayia and bipolarity are cool or can even make you special quote for some people, especially when they're young, there is a bit of a pull to join a group and the group of people with social anxiety or depression feels like one that you can easily join.

Now I read this and I was just like, great, like we're all just so screwed up. Like it's not just that social media itself, it's not just that the doom scrolling and the algorithm is that far. Mental health now, literally social media is making people romanticise, having anxiety, having bipolar disorder, having OCD anorexia so that they can fit in. And so to that I say silence search shop is a great place to buy suppressors for your firearm.

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It is private, it's Christian, it's affordable, it is nonprofit. Find your purpose today@gcu.edu. Again, that is gcu.edu for a faith-driven, affordable, but remarkable education. Now back to the pitfalls of this widespread normalisation and glamorization. One study that was looking at this self-diagnosis found that recent studies, including the BBC experiment, highlighting human tendency to manufacture problems shed light on the psychological underpinnings driving the phenomenon of mental illness glorification, the allure of negativity packaged in aesthetically pleasing edits and shared experiences captivates young audiences, blurring the lines between universal emotions and genuine mental health symptoms.

And consequently, impressionable individuals may self-diagnose or adopt personality traits associated with fictional characters leading to potential misinterpretations and worsening of existing challenges. And then they take it even further. A self-diagnosis of mental illness has been frequently self-reported by members of the involuntary celibate community in cells who have also been extensively linked to mass shooter violence.

According to one study, 95% and 93% of this community had self-diagnosed themselves with depression and anxiety. Respectively. One can speculate that in the process of normalisation and destigmatization the unintended consequence of using mental illness as a get out of jail free card IE an exoneration mechanism has emerged. Oh, you wouldn't say, you wouldn't say that. It is a get out of jail free card. Imagine using a crutch to further your victim status and a lack of responsibility in this culture.

Never shocking, could never see that coming. Obviously those of us with two brain cells know that that is incredibly real. I mean, people are now taking TikTok generated tests to see if they are bipolar. Just look at this. Do I have bipolar disorder? Here's the 10 question screening test. You can go through, you can answer all of these questions, but then at the end, based on how many times you said yes, they will let you know whether you are actually bipolar.

And according to people in the comments, a lot of people are like somebody said, 10 out of 10 diagnosed, another person said, I've got 10 out of 10, what should I do? One girl said 10 out of 10 I'm 20 and diagnosed. I also have glyco mitic disorder. M-D-D-M-I-A-B-E-D and a DHD. Great, stay safe y'all. It's hard, but you will get through it. An inspiration and inspiration. Now, thanks to all of this deep trend of self diagnosing the glamorization of mental illness, much like the unintended consequences of the body positivity movement, for example.

Now fewer people give a crap. Fewer people care, fewer people are taking it seriously. But I would guess just taking again or hear that now there are also more people like data white who look around at our soft responsibility, less culture and say, toughen up buttercup. Don't be a pussy. And does mental illness even exist? Like the reason the people online say depression isn't real, anxiety isn't real is because of the tiktoks that you just watched or is because of this phenomenon of everybody right and left just being like, yeah, I'm depressed.

I'm, I had a sad day, I'm depressed. No, it's like, no, I'm guessing you aren't. I'm guessing you just had a normal human emotion that was not happy. But that does not mean that severe real mental illness does not exist. It's a very nuanced conversation that unfortunately has been muddled by social media, our desperate need for community and a desperate need to heighten your own victim status. Now another unintended consequence of this is that it de-legitimize people who are talking about their own experiences or about mental health on a whole from a genuine, serious real place.

Which brings me back to my point earlier, which is that not all of these conversations are bad. They are not necessarily a sign of weakness asking for help. You know, realising that you are human with these crazy up and down moments. If you are dealing with depression, it does not make you any less of a masculine man. Especially if you are taking action to make your life better. For example, my friend Yvonne has been very open about his mental health struggles on his own show.

Just take a look at this clip and then we're gonna talk about it. - You know, I've been struggling, man. I've, the past like couple years I've had, you know, it's been a struggle in, in certain ways with certain behaviours that I'm just not proud of, right? - Or - Really just behaviours that I didn't want to do anymore. You know, my story in my life, and I'm sorry to make this about me kind of, but I'm just trying to share like, you know, I, when I was growing up, like my mom, something was wrong with her.

I love my mother, you know, but she didn't connect with me. She didn't like look at me and, and she didn't, you know, she wouldn't hold me that much and she didn't look, she, she wouldn't look me in the eyes, right? And, and so as a kid I felt like I felt like something was wrong with me. You know? It just gave me low self-worth. And, and hon it honestly, it made it tough for me to even have a self because the only person that I only knew who I was, if you reacted to me well, right?

Like I became just a people pleaser because I didn't have any feelings of self-worth. So the only way I could get my worth was from you, right? From somebody else. And it made sense. 'cause I didn't have a me, you know, I didn't have a big sense of self and so I got myself from who you thought I was. And I needed everybody to like me. You know, sometimes I, I realised for myself I would pray to God to, to help me get away from certain behaviours in my life.

But at the same time that I was praying, there would be a part of me that knew I was probably gonna do those things again. You know, that I was probably gonna do those things again. Like I be God, please help me and I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna have this behaviour, but there'll be a little part of me that was like, I know even as I ask, ask for God's help that I'm gonna do it again. - I don't see that as weakness, obviously.

I don't like this is a man who is sharing his journey. He is incredibly self-aware, he's incredibly honest. He's sharing all of this with his huge audience of people, many of which I'm sure are struggling through similar things are trying to overcome things. But most importantly, and this is the thing that always stands out to me about Theo, is that he is actively working through the things that he has going on in his life.

He's not just sitting behind a microphone saying, woe is me, have pity on me. Like in fact, I have never heard him say anything remotely like that at all. He's saying, I've got crap that I wanna deal with. I am actively working on it. I am trying to be better. I am praying to God to be better. And that is so incredibly admirable. It is why he went on Rogan's podcast and talked about trying to get off of SSRIs. Just watch, - One of my goals is to get off of antidepressants completely, man.

I wanna feel how I'm supposed to feel so I can have thoughts and actions that, that like make me feel connected to the world. That shit makes you feel dead, man. - So why did you take 'em in the first place? - Because I was in a bad relationship 20 years ago and I was having a tough day at school and they fucking put, they gave them to me and then I never got off. Really? Because when you get off, it's that, I think we talked about this once.

It's hard. - Yeah. It makes you more depressed and more fucked up and you're all in balance and you're, you know, probably you're addicted to them. - Yeah. And so I, that's one of my goals is, and I notice like for me, I've been taking like methyl blue, I've been doing some things like, and I'm working with a doctor to help me, but I, I wanna, I'm gonna get there and I'm just gonna start to take the power back of myself more.

- Well they say that exercise is like many times, - Oh yeah. - Greater in its effect at, at alleviating depression, - Dude, I wake up and I do my yoga and I do like a 35 minute workout. I'll do like six exercises, five runs of it in a row that's 30 exercise, burn through them bitches. And I'm a, and I'm, if I do that when I get up in the morning, bro, I am good. Yeah, I'm fine all day and I'm also po I'm more positive 'cause I've already taken care of myself in a way that I feel is sufficient enough for me to keep operating and moving forward.

- I mean, I feel like I'm just like a puddle of emotions this entire episode, but that clip of the just makes me tear up number one because I just love him and he's a great human. But like even for myself as just a viewer, that's inspiring to see like having accountability, taking back your life. That's not weakness, that that's honesty, it's self-awareness. It is accountability. It's something that can and should inspire and empower others who are out there in the same spot as him.

How could that be considered weakness? And what's great about men like Theo Vaughn and the UFC fighters, Patty and Khalil, and I would hope that Dana White would agree with this. All of his weakness, masculinity, comments aside, is that even as they talk about this, even as they're open about it, they keep going. They keep trying to move forward. They show up for work. Whether that is to interview somebody, make somebody laugh, or you know, beat the brains out of another guy.

They show up for the people in their lives. They're good friends. They are seeking joy, they're trying to make themselves better, they're trying to make a difference in the world. Like that in my eyes is incredibly masculine. That is literally the opposite of weakness. And so if I had to guess, you know, me sitting here psychoanalysing everything, the weakness, weakness, the Dana was talking about, lamenting about in that time profile article is probably, you know, the soy boys who cry online for attention, who make themselves have to be some big victim, but most importantly who come online and publicly complain about things and lament without actually doing anything to better the situation that they are in.

And that I would agree, man or woman is weakness, that is self-harming behaviour charming. The people around you as well. Because like at some point in your life, at some point or another, we are all going to have those intense up and down moments like Khalil was talking about in his interview. Like my mom always says like we are one tragic event away from losing our minds. Kind of like my brother didn't truth be told, like recently I have been in the valley.

If we're talking about the ups and downs, my postpartum hormone crash is definitely not helping. The sleep deprivation is not helping. But man or woman, you pick yourself up, you talk to the people that you love, you get help if you need, you pray more. In my case, you stop eating as many chocolate chip cookies. So your brain stops getting inflamed and you stop being so anxious you go work out like your husband tells you to and you keep pushing forward.

There is absolutely no shame in having mental health problems. There is no shame in being in the valley at a certain point of your life. There is no shame in needing help, asking for help feeling broken. But it is paramount in my opinion that at the end of the day you start to do something about it. And please, for the love of all that is good in the world, do not make it your summer 2026 accessory that is over. It's done.

I've cancelled it.