Social Media and Your Mental Health

If you took a poll of people you know, I’d imagine that most, if not all, would say their mental health was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We live in a society where Millennials and Gen Z are de-stigmatizing mental health issues, often through social media streams.

While the country was shut down and the number of individuals seeking therapy for the first time skyrocketed, they went to social media like TikTok and Instagram to find support. These channels have become great tools to receive workout tips, life hacks, travel recommendations, and dating advice, so why not look to influencers for help with anxiety too – after all it’s so widespread, right?

While there is certainly a great benefit to influencers engaging in the topic of mental health, we’ve seen negative effects as well.

Many influencers speak from their own lived experiences, which is powerful, but that doesn’t make them experts in the field of mental health. Many are giving advice and making claims as facts without any evidence to back them up and without any qualifications. Their intentions are wonderful but their actions can be harmful.

A recent study from the UK showed that almost 90% of social media influencers are sharing inaccurate health information and less than 25% are actually qualified to speak as actual experts.

In the world of mental health, in order to treat patients as a licensed therapist, you have to have at least a 4-year undergraduate degree, a 2-3 year master’s degree, and 2-3 years under clinical supervision to ever work independently seeing patients. Those 8-10 years of learning and clinical experience means that licensed counselors are able to offer clients the most helpful and proven methods to reduce their anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues.

As a licensed clinical counselor, I’d encourage everyone to please watch and share videos about mental health that you find helpful this holiday season to help manage awkward family conversations, stressful work deadlines, and gift-giving hacks – but please reach out to a trained therapist if you want to keep the conversation going.

It’s wonderful that social media is bustling around the topic of mental health and we absolutely love that saying you go to therapy and/or are on medication is no longer taboo! But mental health is more important and requires more attention than a quick, generic pep talk on YouTube or an inspirational story from an Instagram influencer.

Allow the arms of social media’s reach to wet the appetite of people realizing the power of counseling, but for personalized care, let’s look to the professionals for sustaining change!

Your mental health is a big deal and looking for support can certainly start with a viral video, but it’s potentially dangerous if it ends there.