The Teen Zine 

Over the years, social media usage has sky-rocketed. But with that, so has mental health awareness. In fact, social media is one of the reasons we have normalized talking about mental health in general. It’s very common to hear someone talk about their struggles with say ADHD, and relate to others on the internet. This side of social media has normalized talking about mental health and made it a less shameful topic.

But just because social media has raised awareness–has all that awareness been correct? Is there somewhere we went wrong? And should social media be the standard for destigmatizing mental health?

 

Before actually checking whether or not social media has raised awareness or not, we need to understand how social media generally affects people, especially adolescents. 

Since social media is widely used around the world, the question arises, Is social media the reason for a downfall in adolescents mental health? It’s also a valid question but it has a different  answer based on which angle you view it from. 

A recent study done by the AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (APA) showed that, with current scientific evidence, social media is not necessarily “good” or “bad” for young people, and rather depends on how a social media account is used, what young people encounter online and their own personal circumstances. Basically, the same social media app can support and encourage one teenager while contributing negative experiences for the next. The APA also emphasizes that certain types of content, including cyberbullying, harmful content, excessive use and appearance-based social media, may increase psychological risks in some adolescents.

So, maybe social media isn’t inherently bad for adolescents to use. 

But there’s more to it, because now that we’ve understood how social media can affect children, let’s assume there is an individual who has poor mental health, whether that is because of social media usage or their personal circumstances doesn’t matter, because our questions is: 

Why do they go to social media for help?

The answer varies for different individuals. But one problem is clear: Why do young people turn to social media instead of professional help, when available? 

And this is a big problem, because if children don’t seek help from trusted people, it leads them to use the internet for help and that may not be the best choice or experience for everyone.

The reasons are broad but we can see a pattern. 

A big reason for that is cost because despite medical help being present, it might not be accessible for many teenagers. Stigma and difficulty talking to parents is common for households where mental health is not an easy-to-talk-about topic and isn’t treated as a big issue. A lot of adolescents have a fear of parents and their reactions because struggling with mental health and addictions is not easy to talk about. That shame also leads to wanting anonymous support, which you can’t get from talking to parents or a therapist.  

Did you notice something? Social media can offer all those things that adolescents and young people are looking for. No judgement, less intimidating, not costly, anonymous support and an overall convenience. 

Because on social media, you’ll see millions of people with the same, even unhealthy, experience as you. And that takes away the burden and shame most people have. Social media is also less intimidating than going to an adult or booking a therapist for most people. For a lot of people, therapy may not be accessible. They might not be able to afford or access a therapist. They might not have anyone safe to talk to without judgement. That’s when they turn to social media. 

Now, maybe social media can help adolescents struggling with poor mental health, who can’t access real life help. It must be better to turn to social media than to hold all your feelings in, right?

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IS SOCIAL MEDIA ACTUALLY HELPFUL IN RAISING AWARENESS?

Yes, actually, there is a good side of mental health awareness in social media. The strong community and support can actually lighten the burden of feeling ‘off’ and ‘out of place’. Social media can show people how to not be so harsh on themselves and that mental health is really important. Many psychologists also use platforms as a way to prove false information and genuinely help many people–younger or older, learn when they need to seek help and how.

So, yes, social media can have a good side that benefits many people. Social media has helped reduce stigma and make mental health something easier to talk about and it also exposes people to mental-health resources and can help individuals take the first step to reaching support.

Because there is a difference between a) A professional psychologist sharing evidence-based things that help with anxiety, b) An influencer showing you 5 signs which mean you definitely have anxiety, and c) Someone genuinely sharing their personal experience with anxiety. 

The third one isn’t necessarily misinformation either, because personal experiences are different from medical advice. Sharing personal experiences can reduce stigma around mental disorders and raise awareness on the different kinds of mental disorders people can have, because mental disorders aren’t just a checklist, they can be different experiences for different people. This can educate people on understanding different situations and that mental disorders may look different for everyone.

 

However, if we talk about tweens and adolescents specifically, they may take relatability as something as ‘not a big deal’ or something not worth getting checked out. It’s normal for us to see people struggle, even cope with issues unhealthily and start following them.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA AND SELF DIAGNOSING:

A very big problem with social media in mental health is that there is a lot of self-diagnosis lately. Self-diagnosis refers to when someone believes that they have a physical, or in this case, mental disorder and diagnoses them without seeking a proper checkup. And, as mentioned before, a lot of people can’t afford to seek therapy, so it’s normal that they might diagnose themselves and while it’s true that many people suffer with poor mental health, we can’t ignore the rising number of individuals who believe they have mental disorders. 

Self-diagnosis can come from misinformation and even the want to fit in a specific group. Because as we discussed normalizing mental health, social media has actually spread or raised awareness about mental disorders to the point of people romanticizing or seeing it as a good thing. It might be a want to be able to discuss mental health disorders and your own experiences, and for a lot of people who don’t have any, self-diagnosis is the best option. Short videos such as “signs you have ADHD” or “Things people with anxiety do” can make complicated mental-health conditions look like simple checklists. While these videos may help someone recognize they may need support,  they can also encourage people to interpret ordinary experiences as symptoms of a disorder. 

 Because complicated mental disorders are not merely a checklist. These types of videos can make individuals question their mental health even if they might be perfectly healthy!

On the other hand, people with inaccurate self-diagnosis can influence the people around them who genuinely may need medical help to not get any. Why? Because most self-diagnosed people never get any help and don’t act like it’s something worth getting checked. 

And yes, self-recognition is not wrong but neither is it the same as self-diagnosis. Because if someone watches a tiktok and feels that their experiences are similar, it might be the first step to seeking help. The problem is when it becomes more “I relate to this, therefore I have ADHD” which may lead to checking symptoms, watching videos and reading articles to confirm if you have a mental disorder and with that continues an unhealthy cycle of constantly trying to figure out whether you have a disorder. 

So…should we stop using social media for mental-health information?

Probably not, because social media can be a good place for raising medically correct awareness but it shouldn’t replace professional help and reliable health information. We, as a society should work towards providing more accessible medical help, so that less people have to turn to social media for therapy. 

Maybe the question isn’t whether social media should be raising awareness about mental health. Maybe it’s whether we’re asking social media to do a job it was never designed to do.