Anonymous asked in HealthMental Health · 1 decade ago

What does EMO mean in context to mental health?

I've noticed people asking if they are emo or saying they are emo and I always wondered what that means.



Thanks everyone

25 Answers

  • 1 decade ago
    Best Answer

    Thanks, for asking. I wanted to know what Emo meant. Now, I know it means emotional.

  • 1 decade ago

    To be emo can mean many things.

    it's stands for emotional. It started back around the turn of the century (2000) and has merged with one or two other subcultures (or has been stereotyped it's hard to tell). but I'm not going to go into the history of emoism and it's roots.

    There are many degrees of emo interestingly enough. Being emo comes under these catagories but are not limited to it:

    1. Emos Generally have a grave outlook on life, they see the sad hurting aspect of things, and are often times very hurting individuals.

    2. They wear black clothing that is tighter fitting (on guys and girls - unlike gothics who where extremely baggy clothing)

    3. They tend to be on the creative side, often writing grave poetry about fell things in their lives (often in allegorical form).

    Emoism is often assciated with cutting and being suicidal because these people are often hurting and often believe that life is not worth anything. Cutting is an adiction because when you cut your self your body releases endorfens that are trying to heal your body, and it makes you feel good (somewhat unconsciencly I think).

    Now being emo is not to be confused with being gothic. Though they are alike in the fact that they both wear black clothes, gothics are much more concentrated on death and skullism, rather than the emos concentrating more on why we are here and being lost and alone.

    Lonelyness and emo go hand in hand. This is where what i call the "preppy emos" come in. They dress emo because they think it looks cool. This in it's self is not wrong but it's the fact that they have the preppy attitude and try to call them selves emo when really they are stuck up and have tons of bfs / gfs. I mean there plenty of emos out there that have bfs and gfs but they don't have the prep attitude that sucks.

    Emo is also a genre of music that emo people listen to. Screamo.

    I could type about this all night but right now I dont want to.

  • 1 decade ago

    Emo (pronounced[help] /ˈiːmoʊ/) is a style of rock music which describes several independent variations of music with common stylistic roots. As such, use of the term has been the subject of much debate. In the mid-1980s, the term emo described a subgenre of hardcore punk which originated in the Washington, DC music scene. In later years, the term emocore, short for "emotional hardcore", was also used to describe the emotional performances of bands in the Washington DC scene and some of the offshoot regional scenes such as Rites of Spring, Embrace, One Last Wish, Beefeater, Gray Matter, Fire Party, and later, Moss Icon. (In more recent years, the term "emotive hardcore" entered the lexicon to describe the period.)


  • 1 decade ago

    Being 'emo' can mean a lot of things.

    It can mean you are lost mentally, going through a depression, going through pain, are emotionally unstable, shy, very introverted, etc. This also includes self-injury, like cutting. A lot of the time you will hear emos wanting to kill themselves due to the pain and heartache that has happened in their lives.

    Or, it can mean you act 'emo', which most people do. It is a typical sterotype... which is basically a LOT of black, tight jeans, heavy rock music, lots of black makeup, straight hair, but those things aren't exactly the same on every emo!!

    Or, both. :D

    But does that help any? Hope so.

    Source(s): Wikipedia!!! and the emos at school.
  • 1 decade ago

    emo of course is emotional like the rest of the people here are saying, but i think most emos actually only act that way because it became popular, its kind of like a fad, if all those people were really emo there wouldn't be so many around theyd all be dead

  • 1 decade ago

    Emo is just short for "emotional," but a lot of people use it more as a negative term, like depressed/alone/suicidal

  • ELK
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    Emo is a genre of music that is "emo"tional and depressing. People who listen to that sort of stuff tend have the reputation of being real downers, the type who self mutilate and wallow in misery. Thats how it became related to mental health.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    EMO could also be something as simple as not wanting to type the whole word Emotion.

    This type of person likes to take short cuts.

    This type of person may feel the pressure to hurry.

  • 1 decade ago

    emo = emotional

    this is generally used as a put down

    the popular belief is that emo kids are depressed, suicidal and cut themselves.

  • 1 decade ago


  • well anyone can be emo if you mean only the depression and cutting yourself part,but you might mean the trend emo

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