How Rachel Gilmore’s vulnerability exposed the hollow noise machines masquerading as humans.

What do people get out of mocking someone for taking an antidepressant?

Absolutely nothing—unless you count the temporary dopamine bump insecure people get when they mistake cruelty for strength. It’s like emotional junk food: zero nutritional value, guaranteed to rot whatever’s left of their humanity.

When Canadian journalist Rachel Gilmore talked openly about using Zoloft, she did something brave, compassionate, and actually helpful to thousands of people silently dealing with the same thing. And the reaction from the usual Internet bottom-feeders wasn’t just predictable—it was revealing.

Because when someone responds to vulnerability with contempt, they’re not showing you anything about you. They’re showing you everything about them.  So let’s have a look at what makes these fractions-of-humans tick:

1. They mistake empathy for weakness.
People who have never done the hard work of understanding their own mental health often lash out at those who have. Vulnerability terrifies them, so they attack it.  They’d rather set themselves on fire than admit they’ve ever struggled.

2. They’re addicted to outrage and allergic to self-reflection.
Mocking someone’s medication is easier than looking in the mirror and asking why compassion feels so threatening.  Self-reflection? They’d need a working inner life for that.

3. They’re desperate to belong to something—even if that something is cruelty.
Outrage mobs are basically group therapy for people who refuse to go to therapy.  It’s less of a political movement and more of a group tantrum.

4. They think suffering in silence is noble.
It’s not. It’s just untreated suffering. But admitting they need help would collapse the entire fragile identity they’ve built around being “tough.”

5. They confuse punching down with having a personality.
Because if you remove the cruelty, the conspiracies, and the faux bravado… all that’s left is five Doritos, a Facebook meme from 2009, and a single shriveled raisin where a conscience should be.

Ultimately?

These people mock what they fear. And they fear anything that threatens the tiny, trembling worldview that keeps them from confronting their own pain and stupidity.

Rachel Gilmore told the truth about her life.

They told the truth about theirs.

And only one of those things is embarrassing.