Mental health in social media: the risks of seeking validation online

There is a lot of discussion about the risks posed by AI ‘therapy’, but there is something else that has been happening online for years, in the context of social media: the increasing volume of real people offering mental health expertise in a way that can easily populate algorithms, occupy thought processes and inform emotional lives. You might have seen posts leading with ‘How to tell if he’s a narcissist’ or ‘Are you an avoidant attacher?’, with no opportunity to really explore what this might mean to an individual.

Content like this can feel validating and reassuring in the moment, especially if you have been wronged or are feeling confused or unsettled. However, it can also oversimplify complex issues and distort how we see ourselves and others. Some content is enormously helpful and thought-provoking, while other content is misguided, false and, at its worst, dangerous.

What does it mean to distort our views of ourselves and others?

From infancy, we develop a sense of ourselves through the relationships we have with others. As babies, we ideally receive validation that joy is allowed, distress can be contained, accidents and mistakes are repairable, and that there are boundaries and limits to hold us. We eventually learn to face challenges, to trust others, and to ask for help when we need it. Our personalities form over time through repeated interactions with those around us, human to human. This continues throughout our lives as we change and grow, and other people respond to us in different ways.

A distortion in the way we understand ourselves can emerge when we look to social media for validation or guidance on how to manage our emotions. Particularly for those who have not received enough validation and containment in childhood, but also increasingly for everyone else, it can be appealing to scroll through content to find what resonates with feelings like hopelessness, disappointment or confusion. However, without personal reflection and real human feedback over time, this can blur the line between who we really are and the image we believe we should be, replacing authentic self-understanding with a generic image created in a mass-consumed digital space.

So, how can we understand what is evidenced and helpful content and what is not?

There are many competent, knowledgeable professionals and people with lived experience who are helpful, measured, regulated and fully understand the responsibility they hold. The problem is that it’s difficult to distinguish between the careful, genuinely helpful content and the misinformed or reckless content that may be designed to increase views and follow trends.

Earlier this year, The Guardian, found that ‘more than half of all the top [100] trending videos offering mental health advice on TikTok contain misinformation’.

It is not unusual for someone to come to therapy experiencing anxiety around a mental illness they believe they have, because of ‘information’ repeatedly fed to them on social media. This can seem harmless but can also cause deep distress, especially at times of vulnerability when there are challenging life events that elicit necessary but uncomfortable emotional responses not related to mental illness. For instance, grief is a natural response to loss and can feel unbearable, but there is a difference between this and clinical depression. The impersonal nature of social media does not allow space for the exploration of nuance in such situations. We can be left believing we have answers, but those answers may not be appropriate.

People may also seek therapy believing there is something broken or bad about them because a diagnosis or trait they have is heavily demonised on social media, for example, a personality disorder or schizophrenia. One recent trend involves the hatred projected towards those who exhibit ‘narcissistic behaviours’, where the message is often about the exclusion and destruction of people who have caused others pain.

To believe you are inherently a bad person, regardless of whether you have committed a hurtful act, and then feel this belief validated in a TikTok trend can be fundamentally distorting and damaging to a person’s sense of self. It is not necessarily a true reflection of them as an individual. It is important to balance compassion with accountability and responsibility when offering mental health advice.

Some things to be wary of:

• Content validating something you currently believe or do that keeps you stuck or encourages harm to yourself or others.
• Content that gives ready-made answers that seem too good to be true.
• Content presented by people or accounts with no experience or credentials.
• Content that makes you feel bad about yourself and labels you as ‘unchangeable’, ‘broken’, ‘hopeless’ or ‘bad’.

Some things to consider when discerning whether content is truly helpful:

• Keep thinking and remain curious. Notice when certain ideas validate negative thoughts, question it and reflect.
• Move towards content that encourages you to think, not simply accept.
• Check the credentials and following of a creator; this can tell you a lot about their validity. If they seem legitimate, follow them.
• Be careful what you interact with. If you want quality content, only like, share and comment on quality content – the algorithm will follow.
• Read comments when you are not sure. Seeing how others respond can offer counterarguments, corrections, and balance.
• Fact check when you are not sure about the truth of a statement.

The most important aspect of navigating mental health content (or indeed any content) on social media is to make sure we remain curious and keep thinking. Social media does have interesting and helpful content, but it does not offer enough of the human-to-human personal interactions we need to process very complex feelings and thoughts, so thinking can get stuck in loops. If this happens, it can help to find human-to-human support, to expand thinking and continue to develop in an authentic, relational way.

[Article source:  The Guardian ]