Leave it to the experts
Why psychiatric terminology isn't trending content—and what mumfluencers get wrong about your mental health
By Dr Moodoom
Contrary to popular belief, you do need a few qualifications and a lot of smarts to be a psychiatrist. The human mind is way more complicated than what can be demonstrated on a 20 second TikTok reel.
Our insurance costs a lot, but they are essential because, unlike wellness practitioners, life coaches and every second mumfluencer, we can actually be held accountable for advice that harms people.
The best way to tell a psychiatrist from a non psychiatrist is that psychiatrists don't give out advice on social media. That's because the advice we give is actually called treatment and as such is tailored to the individual, not to win sponsorships or free shit. And we use very different terms for things because, well, we are medically trained and not hashtag fuelled. For example, in my entire training did I never go to a lecture about triggering, noun verb or otherwise. We occasionally referred to the 1-2% of the population who had PTSD as identifying triggers for being reminded of traumatic events. That’s real trauma involving death or near death experiences, not missing the train and being rained on, or missing out on a promotion at work. They are called setbacks or disappointments, and rarely play on the mind after they are over.
You can’t be “triggered” if somebody doesn’t agree with you, or if somebody does or says something that reminds you of an ex from a dating app. That’s called getting sad or upset which is perfectly normal, and not to be posted about. And the same for the overuse of the word “boundaries”. The term boundary is used to describe a delineation between two states or locations, and not amorphous constructs and how we enjoy or dislike being treated. There is no such word as “boundaried” and mums teaching their kids on Instagram to have good ones is a 2025 version of telling them to treat others the way they want to be treated.
Psychiatrists have a lot to say about the overuse of terms such as “emotional regulation” too. A dysregulated emotional state is not the one expressed when you can’t find a car park or your Uber gets cancelled. Kids can get “dysregulated”, but again, only briefly and it’s more appropriate to call that a temper tantrum. So if you are reading this and not three years old, then choose another term for what you’re experiencing, even if that hashtag isn’t trending. More need said about how to spot a narcissist than what is actually being said, so I’ll get that sorted for you as well.
So the next time you take advice from a “content creator” on social media be mindful that what they are espousing is curated nonsense for an algorithm. It has nothing to do with any understanding of human afflictions or emotions and everything to do with making you look stupid for adopting their jargon.
