When a social media influencer shared how a yoga pose called savasana (corpse pose) helped her recover from depression, she forgot to add a disclaimer. This means that an exercise routine can benefit your mental health as a complementary habit, provided you address the underlying issues with a professional from the beginning. This turned out to be costly for 30-year-old Radhika Menon (her name changed), one of her 40,000 followers who suffer from depression.
Instead of seeking help from a psychiatrist or psychologist, she tried everything social media influencers advised her to do for five months. She was in a dire condition when she entered the Mumbai clinic of Dr. Sagar Mundada, a consultant psychiatrist with the Healthspring clinic chain. “Yoga certainly helps with mental health, but in her case, she had a family history of depression and needed medication. If exercise alone can solve all mental health problems, why use psychiatry? Do I need to spend three years studying?” he asks. Radhika is now feeling much better with improved eating and sleeping patterns.
Social media platforms are full of influencers offering quick-fix solutions to complex mental health issues. Such misinformation often delays necessary medical intervention and can lead to not taking prescribed medications and worsening the condition.
fight against stigma
Dr. Sameer Parikh, director of mental health and behavioral sciences at Fortis Healthcare, said around 75 per cent of people with mental health concerns refrain from seeking professional help due to social stigma, and online says he loves the comfort of anonymity. “Although it is difficult to quantify, we encounter cases like this every week, especially among the younger demographic who are active on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. “The impact on mental health is particularly severe because of the reluctance to seek professional help,” he added.
Serious problems are becoming more difficult to detect
Dr. Sagar sees at least one or two patients each week who have been affected by scientifically untested online recommendations. “Clinical mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, anxiety, and autism require treatment protocols,” he argues.
“The video suggests that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can be treated with mandala art,” says Dr Suyash Dwivedi, consultant psychiatrist and assistant professor at Rama Medical College, Ghaziabad. His recent LinkedIn post on the same issue went viral.
He worries that serious medical terms such as trauma and depression are being trivialized and people experiencing simple sadness are labeled as depressed. Even if a child fails or gets a low score, they are called “traumatized,” a response that was previously reserved for catastrophic events. “And when patients follow social media advice without success, they become more pessimistic about their chances of recovery. If a person has memory loss, going trekking won’t make it go away. The person may have a neuropsychological disease like multiple sclerosis (MS) that requires medical intervention,” Dr Dwivedi added.
Doctors describe how algorithms force people with mental health issues to continue engaging with such content. “When people search for mental health topics on social media, the platform’s algorithms adjust content such as Instagram Stories to show similar videos,” Dr. Dwivedi explains. “Repeated exposure to homemade treatments for mental illness, unregulated supplements, or extreme diets is misleading. This shows how algorithms influence our perceptions and behaviors.” he added. While these accounts may not be directly aimed at increasing mental health literacy or encouraging help-seeking, they often normalize discussions about mental health as a one-size-fits-all issue. there is.
What does the data say?
A first-of-its-kind study was published in 2022 entitled “Mental health professionals as influencers on TikTok and Instagram: What role do they play in mental health literacy and help-seeking?” . We investigated the influence of Instagram and TikTok. On Instagram, only 54.55% (12 out of 22) of accounts included a disclaimer or crisis support information, while on TikTok, the percentage was even higher at 28.57% (8 out of 28). It turned out that it was low.
escape route
Doctors say social media platforms have strict policies in place to verify and regulate mental health content, and influencers must work with mental health experts to ensure accurate dissemination of information. It suggests that there is. For example, in 2023, researchers at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health collaborated with mental health influencers who boasted a total of 10 million followers for effective outreach. .
“First, influencers with no clinical or medical training should not be allowed to speak on mental health. Second, they should include a disclaimer stating that they have no official qualifications. Third, to ensure credibility, all recommendations must be supported by scientific or research-based evidence,” says Dr. Sagar.
© Indian Express Private Limited
Date first uploaded: May 15, 2024, 15:31 IST
