Social Media and Mental Health: What’s the Connection?

Studies have consistently demonstrated that stimulant medications are more effective than behavioral therapy or cognitive training alone in reducing symptoms . Medications, particularly stimulants, remain the primary option for managing symptoms, while non-stimulant alternatives provide additional choices for those who cannot tolerate stimulants. Future research should focus on evaluating the long-term effectiveness of these strategies and developing integrated approaches that leverage both parental and peer support systems. In conclusion, effective strategies for preventing and addressing cyberbullying involve a combination of parental support, peer-led initiatives, and educational programs. The review emphasized the importance of designing these systems to facilitate meaningful connections and support among users. Excessive monitoring without open communication can weaken the parent-child relationship and reduce children’s willingness to disclose online concerns, highlighting the need for a balanced approach .

• The pressure to conform to hyper-masculine ideals, such as extreme muscularity, financial success, or dominance, can contribute to body dissatisfaction and self-esteem issues, sometimes leading to conditions like muscle dysmorphia .
• With social media becoming the primary source of news for most people, journalists in traditional media argue that they have limited control over how news is reported.
• For anxiety disorders, Carpenter et al. (2018) conducted a meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials and found that CBT consistently reduced symptoms across various anxiety-related conditions.
• Social media has a big impact on mental health.

Impact of Campaigns

This helps reduce the stigma about mental illness in the context of marriage and may prevent the post-marriage consequences of hiding the mental illness during marriage. SM platforms such as Facebook keep a record of old photos and memories and give timely notifications of the activities done on the platform. User-friendly video games with guidance and supervision of family members (balancing their screen time) can help improve the performance of older people in cognitive tasks.6,7 A new construct in the medical curriculum, the “AETCOM Module,” includes teaching/learning “Attitude, Ethics, and Communication.” This is taught by case discussions, role plays, panel discussions, debates, showing videos, etc., and this can be done on digital media. If these devices are developed with mental health professionals in the loop, the scientific validity of the assessments and interventions can be ensured. Exercise is considered to be a protective factor for mental health too.

Understanding Trauma Responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, Flop

This is an important observation because individuals living with serious mental disorders typically have few social contacts in the offline world and also experience high rates of loneliness (Badcock et al. 2015; Giacco et al. 2016). For adolescents and young adults ages 12 to 21 with psychotic disorders and mood disorders, over 97% reported using social media, with average use exceeding 2.5 h per day (Birnbaum et al. 2017b). Individuals who self-identified as having a schizophrenia spectrum disorder responded to a survey shared through the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) and reported that visiting social media sites was one of their most common activities when using digital devices, taking up roughly 2 h each day (Gay et al. 2016). Recent studies have shown that individuals with mental disorders are increasingly gaining access to and using mobile devices, such as smartphones (Firth et al. 2015; Glick et al. 2016; Torous et al. 2014a, b). Social media has become a prominent fixture in the lives of many individuals facing the challenges of mental illness. Discuss the role of schools, workplaces, and online platforms in addressing and preventing bullying, and strategies for supporting individuals who have been bullied.

We may see platforms that integrate mental health support directly into user experiences, such as real-time stress detection and guided relaxation tools. As technology evolves, so will the relationship between social media and mental health. The positive potential of social media lies in mindful use—choosing platforms, communities, and content that uplift rather https://businessesgrow.com/2021/06/30/brand-generosity/ than deplete.

Social media use also appears to have a differential impact on mental health and emotional wellbeing between females and males (Booker et al. 2018), highlighting the need to explore unique experiences between gender groups to inform tailored programs and services. In the same survey, there did not appear to be any differences between racial or ethnic groups in social media use for seeking mental health information (Rideout and Fox 2018). The reported risks of social media use were directly related to many aspects of everyday life, including concerns about threats to employment, fear of stigma and being judged, impact on personal relationships, and facing hostility or being hurt (Naslund and Aschbrenner 2019). Additionally, concerns have been raised about poor quality or misleading health information shared on social media and that social media users may not be aware of misleading information or conflicts of interest especially when the platforms promote popular content regardless of whether it is from a trustworthy source (Moorhead et al. 2013; Ventola 2014). Most studies report cross-sectional associations between cyberbullying and symptoms of depression or anxiety (Hamm et al. 2015), though one longitudinal study in Switzerland found that cyberbullying contributed to significantly greater depression over time (Machmutow et al. 2012).