Mental Illness and Social Media

Sue Spence
Jun 20, 2023
4 min read

Updated: Mar 26

Friend or Foe

I did some research recently on a particular social media platform, as I don't really venture out onto it often, and I was quite shocked at what I found. This got me asking the question "Does social media support the healing of depression or does it support the continued downward spiral of depression?" Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places to find the support I'm looking for, so if anyone out there has a different opinion, I'd really like to hear from you. In this article, I will share my experiences of looking for support for clinical depression and mental illness on social media.

Social Media Platforms

Before I begin, I must first confess that I am technologically challenged and so my understanding of social media platforms may not be 100% correct. I may include things that are not technically correct and I may leave out a lot of platforms. My exposure to social media has not been high but I like it that way.

Facebook

I originally created my account back when my children were young teenagers and wanted to create their own accounts. I wasn't going to let them loose without knowing something about the platform, so created my own account, but have hardly used my account over the years. Having been diagnosed with severe depressive disorder I thought I'd try to join a few support groups, so using a few keywords like "depression", "mental illness", etc I found a few groups I could immediately join, and a few I had to be approved to join. I started scrolling through the groups I had joined and was immediately struck by the negativity in the initial post, followed by the onslaught of negativity in the comments that followed. And this was the trend of each group. Once I had been approved by the other groups, I found only one that was not like that. However, this one seems to be aimed more towards the medical professionals and no one commented on any of the posts, so again, is no support for the sufferer of depression or mental illness.

I'm an absolute fan of Pinterest and have been for quite some time. I use it as a search engine, to pass time just scrolling through, I planned our wedding by getting ideas from it, and have numerous boards that I save ideas to that I'll probably never get to do or use, but it's fun. My research for major depressive disorder or mental illness hasn't resulted in much. There are some articles on depression and anxiety and how people have overcome this, but I find most of these are written in a very long-winded way that it takes so long to get to the point, and I have lost my energy by then. Where I have had some support is in specific areas of need, such as guided meditation, guided journaling, exercise routines that fit my level of capabilities, etc., which has been a help. But this means you have to know what you need to get the support.

I joined LinkedIn quite a while ago and it's great for networking with people, has lots of interesting articles and people to follow. Obviously, because it is primarily geared as a workplace networking platform and mental illness has a huge stigma to it there is nothing to find there about mental illnesses or depression.

Websites

I haven't found any South African websites that offer depression sufferers or mental illness patients any support. I do however subscribe to a website that a dear friend shared with me that sends a "Thought for Today" daily email with a positive message. Not all of the messages resonate with me but I'd say 95% of them do and are powerful. Reading the message is a moment to stop and absorb the words, and have a moment of introspection and reflection before continuing with the day. I often share these messages on my WhatsApp status and use some of them as inspiration in my meditations as well. I find the positivity in the messages a great support. If you would also like to receive these daily messages, the website is www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk.

Twitter and the rest

That is pretty much where my social media knowledge comes to a staggering halt. To my knowledge Twitter is a live chat so would not provide much in the way of support unless maybe you started a conversation? And I think the rest are mostly for posting graphics. Not much help.

Break the Stigma

There clearly is a shortage of proper support for major depressive disorder sufferers and mental health illnesses in general through social media. I'm not sure how you found this article, possibly through Facebook or Pinterest, or if you already subscribe you may have found it directly through my website "I Do What It Takes". I have created my website and blog for this purpose, and am posting my articles through Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn. However you found the article, please help me break the stigma of depression and mental health illnesses, and provide positive support for sufferers, by sharing all my articles with your network of friends and colleagues using any form of social media you have available to you. Lets be a positive influence on social media and together we can break the stigma because mental health matters❤️

Take Action

But I wont do that supporting major depressive disorder

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