Is Instagram Bad For Your Mental Health?
A quick Google search demonstrates people are divided on whether the social media platform Instagram is harmful. Instagram has been accused of driving an increase in anxiety and depression amongst young people, spreading rampant fear of missing out (FOMO), and contributing to what Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) therapists refer to as “contagious behaviors,” defined as behaviors that, if talked about openly, may create or increase that urge in other people.
Some argue the opposite: that Instagram and its users are champions of destigmatizing mental health.
My opinion on the matter is also divided. Like with most things, I suspect reality is more of a “both…and” rather than “either…or” (which, in DBT, we call a ‘dialectic’). I certainly find myself changing my mind frequently about whether or not Instagram is something I want to use, for the reasons identified as well as others.
These things were in my mind as I sat, scrolling on Instagram trying to idle away my time while waking up with a cup of coffee. My plan that morning was to surf mental health memes both for my own personal edification as well as impression-gathering for this blog. “Oh? What’s this?” I thought, when searching the aforementioned hashtag and finding myself greeted by a content advisory warning. I’ll admit, I had not thought I would have to make such an intentional decision so early in the morning.
As this was both work and pleasure, I thought “since I’m here, I may as well see Instagram’s idea of getting support.” I selected “Get Support” and was taken from the app to a mobile browser page that provided me with several options, each of which had even more details to peruse.
I took note of the prompt to either speak with a friend (despite this being a social media platform) as well as the option to support yourself. All I had anticipated was the typical link to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) and perhaps an encouragement to call 911 if nothing else was successful. This was far more detailed than my expectations. Even following the link to speak with a helpline volunteer offered more in the way of options than I predicted.
This list, though far from comprehensive, provides multiple avenues of communication with a variety of mental health services. The Crisis Text Line (www.crisistextline.org) connects people around the world with trained volunteers to move the person from what they refer to as “hot moments” to a place of calm and safety. The Trevor Project (www.thetrevorproject.org) seems to provide the same type of support, only geared towards LGBTQ youth. It seems that someone at Instagram also felt it useful to include the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline prompts for veteran and military personnel specifically. The choice to reach out to a friend even comes with a helpful prompt of what to say if initiating the conversation seems too difficult.
In my opinion, however, the prompt Instagram provides when one follows the link to support yourself is where this app really shines. Three subcategories (Slow Down a Crisis, Change Your Surroundings and Take Care of Yourself) group the suggestions into areas and I will admit my bias at this point because most of the suggestions for supporting yourself either are DBT skills or resemble DBT skills closely.
Just look at those suggestions! Two of the TIP skills (Ice Diving and Paced Breathing), the PLEASE skill and distraction all over the place. I admit ignorance about how this process developed on Instagram; was it always here? Were there prompting events that encouraged the social media platform to rethink its approach? What else has been tried? Though I can’t imagine that the average Instagram user will ever see this, I have to admit that I found their offer of support far meatier than I expected.
Now, onto the posts themselves. I will acknowledge less enthusiastic support when looking at the totality of what one can find regarding mental health memes on Instagram. They range anywhere from your typical closer-to-an-inspirational-poster memes to dark, witty and painfully accurate. For people involved in any aspect of mental health, it is easy to find memes that resonate with your life. Memes can be helpful in reducing stigma, since even the most stigmatized and complex experiences are often represented. It becomes difficult to believe that you are the only person who has ever dealt with what you’re going through – your tribe is waiting right there for you to find their hashtag. Mental health memes have helped normalize the experience of mental illness and even prompted people to seek treatment, perhaps illustrating that a level of anxiety and depression thought normal is actually not.
However. Then there’s fear of missing out. Toxic positivity and plenty of opportunity for our thoughts of feeling “other” or “less than” to be reinforced. This is a well-documented problem, that people often only put the best aspects of themselves and their lives onto social media. To provide a metaphor, we compare the reality of our disorganized and dangerous storage room with someone else’s carefully curated store front and tell ourselves that our store will never be as appealing, fashionable or attractive. It feels like we are comparing apples to apples, but that is not always the truth. When we scroll through the often highly edited and colorful photos and updates on other’s social media, it becomes easy to see our lives as bleak or dreary in comparison when we have nothing equally colorful to offer.
Toxic positivity is another problem itself. As a DBT therapist in a DBT practice, I work primarily with people who have Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). At heart, we believe that this is a mood regulation disorder and it is common for my clients to struggle with managing extreme, overwhelming negative emotion. One of the skills we regularly use is to determine whether or not our emotions fit the facts of a situation – are they justified, given the circumstances? This skill also teaches us that the response to justified emotion is different than the response to unjustified emotion. Toxic positivity disregards times when a negative emotion, while uncomfortable, may be reasonable. Basic emotion education teaches us that emotions are evolutionarily helpful in providing us information about our environment and motivating us to action, among other things. To encourage a person to ignore or attempt to subvert any emotion viewed as negative is in essence to ask a person to ignore or attempt to subvert an important and necessary part of themselves. And, worst of all in my judgment, does nothing to give us a direction about what to do when our best efforts to “focus on the positive” aren’t enough. When reading platitudes on the internet about “looking on the bright side” and “give yourself time, you’ll flower” are insufficient to address the real problems that real people really struggle with. Instagram specifically, but social media in general, can easily perpetuate this attitude towards mental health and do much more harm than help.
Having organized my thoughts through the process of writing this blog, I remain dialectical about the pros and cons of Instagram. Is the benefit of people seeking help and finding their tribe worth the struggle with toxic positivity and fear of missing out? Each person’s answer to that is different and may be different in different seasons of their life. If you are at a place where you are struggling, not sure if what you experience is normal or want to feel better about your life, I would invite you to give us a call today and see how therapy can be helpful for you. Let us help you in building a life of color, of joy, of peace…in short, a life worth living!
