On Monday, Elmo, “Sesame Street’s” iconic, forever 3-year-old furry red monster, asked a simple question on X: “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” The puppet was inundated with honest responses about people’s daily depression, anxiety and feelings of being overwhelmed.
“Every morning, I cannot wait to go back to sleep,” one X user posted. “Every Monday, I cannot wait for Friday to come. Every single day and every single week for life.”
“The world is burning around us, Elmo,” one X user wrote. “Elmo we are tired,” someone simply responded. “Elmo I’m suffering from existential dread over here,” another commented.
The puppet was inundated with honest responses about people’s daily depression, anxiety, and feelings of being overwhelmed.
That’s right. While there were some obvious jokes, many of the responses were honest and dire. Taken as a whole, they spoke to the mental health challenges many Americans face. Nearly 50 million Americans experience mental illness, and according to one CNN/Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 90% believe the nation itself is in a mental health crisis. By Wednesday, Elmo’s post had received almost 182 million views. At times it seemed an entire internet’s worth of grown adults were trauma-dumped on a puppet.
It’s not surprising why.
“People are really struggling currently, between the upcoming election, state of the climate, among others, with perhaps inadequate places to release the stress,” Shira Spiel, a licensed clinical psychologist who has a doctorate in psychology, said of the overwhelming response to Elmo’s post. “Perhaps it speaks to the desire to connect in our increasingly remote, virtual world.”
Nicole Kern, a psychologist practicing in the state of Washington, said that the Sesame Street Muppets are in a unique position to evoke the type of vulnerability required for adults to engage in honest, public discussions about mental health, one of the reasons why so many…
Read the full article here
