The internet, especially social media, is a good way to connect with people. You can connect with people you know or don’t know, through many mediums. Getting support with mental illness on social media is a very positive thing which can effectively save lives. However, this isn’t always the case.
There are countless anonymous accounts on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram etc. Many of these accounts discuss things like suicide, self harm, purging, starving and other similar behaviours. I can see why people would do this: to vent our feelings but not have to actually tell someone how you are feeling. They might also find a sense of understanding from other as they would meet people in the same situation as them and they would help support each other. But a lot of them were encouraging others to participate in the harmful behaviours that they already struggle with.
There are many ‘hashtags’ or ‘trends’ that are all over the internet about mental illness. Many of these are positive; providing support and creating awareness of the problems but they aren’t all like this. The majority of times I scroll through my Twitter timeline, I see some form of negative trend involving mental health. I’ve never really paid too much attention to them but out of curiosity, I searched one of them and some of the things I saw on it were truly shocking. I’ve been exposed to mental health a lot in the past few years so most of the actual content didn’t faze me, but the way it was being addressed, for millions of people to see, really surprised me. I was seeing images of people’s self harm, and even some people discussing how proud or happy they were of what they had done. People were encouraging other to carry on with self harming or starving themselves which I really didn’t expect. Many of these people appeared to be in a similar situation so surely if you knew what it was like, wouldn’t you try and stop them?
Trends like ‘#secretsociety123’ and ‘#selfharm’ are rife throughout the many different social networks. I worry and also expect that they are connecting potentially vulnerable young people in an unsafe, uncontrolled environment where they can discuss potentially dangerous behaviours. When you’re struggling with a mental illness, you are very fragile, vulnerable and easily influenced or triggered. If you’re looking through this trend or see some of the content without looking for it, it can be horrendously triggering and fuel the difficult thoughts that are already circling your mind.
Mental illness was being portrayed completely the wrong way, hence many people having warped views of what having a mental health problem is like. It had been completely romanticised which is completely wrong. There is nothing desirable about having such a difficult time in your own head that you struggle to get through every day. It’s not the beautiful, quirky thing it’s made out to be and it genuinely upsets me that people might think that these images are true and what my life is really like.
I think that more needs to be done to support these people but in reality, what can be done? The social networks cannot realistically offer them real help because there is so many of them and as they are anonymous, friends and family are very unlikely to find out. As much as trigger warnings and links to places where you can seek help are useful, they are likely not to have an effect on the person as their problems are probably already too deep seated. This is probably the saddest thing because it’s just so difficult to help them.
There are countless anonymous accounts on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram etc. Many of these accounts discuss things like suicide, self harm, purging, starving and other similar behaviours. I can see why people would do this: to vent our feelings but not have to actually tell someone how you are feeling. They might also find a sense of understanding from other as they would meet people in the same situation as them and they would help support each other. But a lot of them were encouraging others to participate in the harmful behaviours that they already struggle with.
There are many ‘hashtags’ or ‘trends’ that are all over the internet about mental illness. Many of these are positive; providing support and creating awareness of the problems but they aren’t all like this. The majority of times I scroll through my Twitter timeline, I see some form of negative trend involving mental health. I’ve never really paid too much attention to them but out of curiosity, I searched one of them and some of the things I saw on it were truly shocking. I’ve been exposed to mental health a lot in the past few years so most of the actual content didn’t faze me, but the way it was being addressed, for millions of people to see, really surprised me. I was seeing images of people’s self harm, and even some people discussing how proud or happy they were of what they had done. People were encouraging other to carry on with self harming or starving themselves which I really didn’t expect. Many of these people appeared to be in a similar situation so surely if you knew what it was like, wouldn’t you try and stop them?
Trends like ‘#secretsociety123’ and ‘#selfharm’ are rife throughout the many different social networks. I worry and also expect that they are connecting potentially vulnerable young people in an unsafe, uncontrolled environment where they can discuss potentially dangerous behaviours. When you’re struggling with a mental illness, you are very fragile, vulnerable and easily influenced or triggered. If you’re looking through this trend or see some of the content without looking for it, it can be horrendously triggering and fuel the difficult thoughts that are already circling your mind.
Mental illness was being portrayed completely the wrong way, hence many people having warped views of what having a mental health problem is like. It had been completely romanticised which is completely wrong. There is nothing desirable about having such a difficult time in your own head that you struggle to get through every day. It’s not the beautiful, quirky thing it’s made out to be and it genuinely upsets me that people might think that these images are true and what my life is really like.
I think that more needs to be done to support these people but in reality, what can be done? The social networks cannot realistically offer them real help because there is so many of them and as they are anonymous, friends and family are very unlikely to find out. As much as trigger warnings and links to places where you can seek help are useful, they are likely not to have an effect on the person as their problems are probably already too deep seated. This is probably the saddest thing because it’s just so difficult to help them.