Kanye’s mental health isn’t a joke, and neither is his behaviour

Kanye West is making headlines every day since he split with Kim Kardashian. But one star says people should “stop enjoying this”.

Once again, Kanye West is making headlines every day since he split with Kim Kardashian and she was caught canoodling with Pete Davidson. While Ye does know how to make a splash, there’s a very real problem with the way we talk about him.

While there is no excuse for tormenting your ex the way Kanye appears to be, it’s not a source of entertainment.

He might be a celebrity, but he’s also a human with a very publicly documented struggle with his mental health, by way of bipolar disorder. This does not make him the butt of all jokes, and it doesn’t make his continued attacks on Kim in any way funny.

Haven’t we learned anything from how we treated Britney Spears?

It’s a sentiment shared in a viral post from Jameela Jamil, where she (rightly) begs media and individuals to take a step back.

Jamil continued in the post’s caption: “This is not me in ANY WAY defending or excusing Kanye. But I do know enough about mental illness to know that the public/media is handling this in a way that only leads to more sadness/danger for everyone involved”.

“A woman is afraid. Children are traumatised. And Kanye is making catastrophic decisions”.

“Just stop treating it like it’s Real Housewives,” she finished.

The thing is, Ye’s behaviour right now is not OK, and it’s not being made from a mentally healthy mind — so all of us egging him on for entertainment is only making it worse for everyone involved.

Kanye himself has criticised Davidson for making his mental health into a joke during an SNL skit back in 2018.

“HI SKETE YOU GOT ANYMORE MENTAL HEALTH JOKES FOR ME?” Kanye shared alongside an image of Davidson from the show in question, wearing a hat that said ‘Make Kanye 2006 Again’.

For context, Davidson is on his own mental health journey and was open about it during his criticisms of Kanye, and the comments were made to try and distance himself from Ye’s Trump-supporting comments while he hosted an earlier show.

Context aside, the point is, everyone’s mental health journey is their own, and it’s never a joke.

Kim Kardashian officially filed for divorce from Kanye in March, 2021.

Not to mention that when you talk about his mental health issues as if they’re a joke, you bring back a dangerous stereotype around everyone with bipolar and other mental health problems.

In case this still needs to be said: not everyone with bipolar acts the way Kanye does. I have a couple of very close friends with bipolar who are the most beautiful, kind humans you could ever meet.

Yes, sometimes over the past decade or more of me knowing them, the struggle for their personal wellbeing has been very real — which can be scary for them and those of us who love them. The rest of the time, these two people are better at living than anyone else I know. Oh, and both of them are in long-term, healthy relationships, in case that matters to you.

‘I know he's asking for the attention, but getting it will create unimaginable sadness for him and mostly his completely innocent kids later,’ says Jamil.

Celebrity lives are fascinating, and this isn’t the first time we’ve all got a kick out of Kanye’s downfall (don’t try and deny it), but now we know better.

Now his actions are bordering on dangerous for his ex-wife, and traumatic for his children. So let’s just please, leave them alone and stop turning real life trauma into entertainment.