Sabrina Carpenter’s witty wordplay and cheeky innuendos have propelled her from Disney star to one of music’s most self-aware hitmakers.
But her new song Nobody’s Son – featured on the album Man’s Best Friend – has struck a different kind of chord and this time, one that mental health advocates say hits the wrong note.
The 26-year-old singer’s lyrics, ‘That boy is corrupt, get PTSD on the daily’ has drawn criticism from PTSD UK, a charity that has accused the artist of trivialising a serious mental health condition.
In an open letter to Carpenter and her label, the organisation called the lyric ‘medically inaccurate’ and ‘disappointing,’ warning that the casual use of such terms risks ‘minimising the experiences of those living with PTSD or C-PTSD.’
The line’s viral spread on TikTok, where users have folded it into memes and edits, has only amplified the charity’s concern.
PTSD UK argued that turning the phrase into a social media punchline reinforces cultural misunderstandings of trauma: ‘When serious mental health conditions are used inaccurately or casually, it reinforces misunderstanding and stigma,’ the letter stated.
‘Artistic freedom is valuable — but with that influence comes responsibility to ensure that creative work does not perpetuate harmful stereotypes or misinformation about genuine medical conditions.’
Carpenter has not yet commented publicly, but the controversy points to a wider tension that has shadowed pop’s recent obsession with therapy-speak.
Terms like ‘triggered,’ ‘trauma,’ and ‘gaslighting’ have migrated from the clinical to the conversational, finding new lives as emotional shorthand in songs, tweets, and captions.
What was once medical language is now part of the everyday pop lexicon — often stripped of its diagnostic meaning and losing poignancy through repetition.
For younger audiences, this vocabulary can offer validation and relatability. But as critics note, it can also flatten real mental health struggles into trendy idioms.
What is PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events.
Someone with PTSD often relives the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks, and may experience feelings of isolation, irritability and guilt.
They may also have problems sleeping, such as insomnia, and find concentrating difficult.
These symptoms are often severe and persistent enough to have a significant impact on the person’s day-to-day life.
Any situation that a person finds traumatic can cause PTSD.
PTSD can develop immediately after someone experiences a disturbing event, or it can occur weeks, months or even years later.
PTSD is estimated to affect about 1 in every 3 people who have a traumatic experience, but it’s not clear exactly why some people develop the condition and others do not.
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD)
People who repeatedly experience traumatic situations, such as severe neglect, abuse or violence, may be diagnosed with complex PTSD or CPTSD.
Complex PTSD can cause similar symptoms to PTSD and may not develop until years after the event. It’s often more severe if the trauma was experienced early in life, as this can affect a child’s development.
Source: NHS
The result is a culture in which distress is both hyper-visible and increasingly performative, where mental illness symptoms can become social currency.
The backlash doesn’t erase Carpenter’s artistic intent, but it raises a familiar question: where does clever lyricism end and careless representation begin?
Whether or not the singer responds directly, Nobody’s Son has already done what pop music does best: sparked reflection, debate, and a reminder that words, especially catchy ones, carry weight.
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