Psychology, as a science, was never meant to be distilled into 90-second TikToks narrated over a Lana Del Rey audio. It was never supposed to become a Tumblr infographic aesthetic. It’s not that self-awareness is bad. Psychology Was Never Meant to Be This Girlbossy. But somewhere between “healing your inner child” and diagnosing your friend group with attachment styles, we lost the plot.

And the plot matters.

The Consequences of Pop Psychology

Pop psychology has turned every human quirk into a potential red flag. You like being alone? Must be avoidant attachment. You talk to yourself? Anxiety disorder. You daydream? Dissociation. You sew? Escapism. You’re ambitious? Probably childhood trauma.

No one’s allowed to just be anymore.

Everything you do must either be productive, monetized, or rooted in some unhealed wound. That’s not therapy. That’s paranoia dressed up.

No, You Weren’t “Disassociating” as a Kid. You Were Reading.

Imagine being eight years old, curled up with a book you love, and someone decides that was you “escaping a traumatizing reality” via dissociation. No. You were reading because reading is fun. Books are not inherently symptoms of mental illness.

And yet, we have probably all seen someone online claim reading was a red flag for maladaptive coping. BESTIE. The only maladaptive thing here is your need to overanalyze joy into extinction.

“What Are You Escaping From?”

This Conversation, Honestly.

The new trend is asking creatives what they’re “escaping from” by making art. It’s almost hostile. Like we can’t simply enjoy doing things without having some psychological origin story behind it.

I do creative projects because I like them. That’s the whole reason. There’s no big backstory. There’s no dark secret. Sometimes, a hobby is just a hobby. Sometimes, an activity is just a vibe.

Can we stop mining every interest for some latent diagnosis?

When Everything Is a Symptom, Nothing Is a Life

This is the real danger of pop psychology: when every human behavior becomes a potential “symptom,” you start to question your entire existence. You can’t just like what you like. You can’t just laugh at your own joke. You can’t just exist without some internal monologue diagnosing you from the sidelines.

You end up walking through life with a clipboard instead of a heart.

What’s the End Goal Here?

Are we trying to become so self-aware we lose the ability to enjoy being alive? Because that’s what’s happening.

Joy is not suspicious. Curiosity is not pathological. Imagination is not a disorder. Daydreaming, creating, laughing to yourself—these aren’t dysfunctions. They’re the essence of being human.

Reclaim Joy

Let’s stop turning hobbies into symptoms and personalities into pathology. You’re allowed to enjoy things without a trauma narrative attached. You’re allowed to be a full, complex human being without a DSM label to go with it.

Reclaim reading. Reclaim imagination. Reclaim art. Reclaim joy. Reclaim living.

Because not everything needs to be healed. Some things just need to be felt.