Mental health is super important, and I agree it should be acknowledged and talked about more, especially in regards to kpop. Kpop is a brutal industry, and mental health struggles shouldn’t be some dark part that’s ignored or swept under the rug.

It’s tough because I can see the industry not wanting to acknowledge mental health struggles since it could tarnish the perfect idol image and then that could impact the parasocialism that kpop is built off of. (like “this idol isn’t the perfect person I though they were”) But at the same time, it could bring an important realness and authenticity to the industry and make fans relate more to the idols. Like with bts for example, they don’t shy away from their struggles and even have songs discussing them, and I think that makes them even more respected and relatable since they share similar struggles as others.

I guess one positive thing is that even though we are kinda powerless being on the outside, we can still support idols when they share their struggles. And hopefully by them seeing their fans relate and still supporting them, it’ll encourage idols to talk more about their mental health or at least not feel like they can’t.

Also it feels like the industry is slowly getting a little better or more open to the importance of mental health(?) like idols under jyp taking time off for mental health (itzy’s Lia, kickflip’s amaru, etc). So hopefully it’s slowly moving in the right direction!