Self-Care Now A Common Euphemism For ‘Actively Not Giving A Fuck About Other People’

WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet | CONTACT

Self-care, ie taking some time to prioritise your own mental, physical and spiritual well-being sounds like a good idea right?

Well that’s cause it is, according to pretty much everyone.

However, according to Esther Werner, a local psychologist and wellbeing spokesperson at Betoota District Psychologists, that phrase and concept has been hijacked of late.

Speaking to The Advocate as part of her monthly Trends and Tips segment in our weekend paper, Esther says self-care has slowly come to mean something else.

“Yeah, unfortunately a lot of self-diagnosing experts who spend a lot of time on social media have somewhat commandeered that phrase and turned self-care from meaning to care for one’s self, to actively not giving a fuck about the other people in your life,” said Esther.

“For example a common use of this phrase would be when someone doesn’t want to attend a social event organised by someone they care about or are supposed to care about.”

“And they claim just flaking on that event is an act of ‘self-care,’ instead of just acknowledging they are being a bad friend or family member.”

“Because when they organise an event they expect everyone to attend and indulge their own wishes.”

“Or when someone says they aren’t going to do something with their partner because they want to lie on the couch and scroll social media as an act of self-care.”

“Which they tend to package up with all this jargon and gas light people into thinking they are promoting their own wellbeing by actively not being a part of their community and in turn hurting their own wellbeing.”

More to come.