So is online sharing a cure or a curse?
A problem shared is a problem halved, right? But what if that problem is a mental illness, and the sharing is with strangers on the internet? There’s no doubt that it’s good to talk – it smashes stigma and reassures us that we’re not alone. There are entire communities built around it on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
But last week, when Zoella spoke about her struggles with anxiety in a rare post to her 10.6 million followers, she expressed concern about the impact of living our lives online. ‘It’s a cure, but it’s also a curse,’ she said. ‘ We are a generation of scrollers and we consume so much on the internet that we probably don’t realise how much of it is detrimental to us or our wellbeing.’
Her words opened up a conversation about the complicated relationship between the internet and mental health. This is an age in which we’ve never been more honest and open about our struggles with the latter – particularly online – yet, at the same time, the statistics about mental health have never been bleaker. According to Mind, an all-time high of 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience mental health problems each year.
I wonder if this contradiction suggests that sharing our most vulnerable moments on social media could actually be damaging rather than helping us?
If you search the hashtag ‘anxiety’ on Instagram, you’ll find more than 8,940,000 posts related to the topic. If you type in ‘depression’ you’ll see a whole host of hashtags – ‘depression quotes’, ‘depression memes’, ‘depression sucks’, ‘depression awareness’ and ‘depression recovery’, to name only some of the top 10.
But for all its supportiveness, social media is no substitute for expert help. A recent study found that 19 to 24-yearolds talk about mental health online a lot. And when they do, they share resources with each other more than they engage with local services – meaning they’re at risk of following unhelpful or even harmful advice. The report called for more ‘consistent and easily identified’ sources of support to avoid misinformation being spread among people.
I have never posted on social media about the revolving door of anxiety/ depression that I sometimes get stuck in. This is partly because I became frustrated by other people’s desire to provide unsolicited amateur therapy that had the potential to make me feel even worse. When depression is bad, it feels like it is creeping into every corner of your brain and being, seeping through the cracks of everything you do. It follows you, no matter how much you try to lose it. Sharing that on a social media platform that will exist for years to come makes it impossible to escape.
Every single person on this planet should feel they can talk openly about mental illness without fearing stigma. As that’s not the case, we still need initiatives such as Time To Talk. I’m not saying we shouldn’t keep sharing online about mental health, but let’s be real, this kind of online talk is cheap – hashtags are therapy’s cut-price cousin, while easy-toaccess mental health support services are too expensive for many.
People are waiting as long as four months for talking therapy on the NHS. More focus should be placed on addressing that need – because if you’re suffering from a common mental illness such as anxiety, depression or PTSD, there’s only so much help you’re going to get on social media.