Social Media and Mental Health

This is a topic I've wanted to discuss for a while. I've wanted to see which aspects of social media are related to one's mental health. After coming across a great ABC podcast (All in the Mind) I wanted to get on posting quickly, so here it is.

What's going to follow is a discussion about the various effects of using social media - particularly how these effects relate to your mental health. What it's not going to be is a review of relevant literature on the topic (that'll come later), but rather a review of some of the interesting tidbits I came across in the aforementioned podcast and the expert interviewed. It's vibrant, interesting, and down right applicable to almost every one of us. After all, you probably came across this blog through the use of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) so this discussion is definitely for you!

What this won't be is a rant against social media. I use it. So does almost everybody I know. It's got a ton of awesome aspects to it, but it's also got a ton of adverse aspects to it. So on that note, I think we can begin.

Research psychologist Dr. Larry Rosen describes in his new book iDisorder (and in an interview with ABC broadcaster Lynne Malcolm), the negative effects social media might have with regards to accentuating mental illness. That being said, in terms of accentuating I mean bringing to the fore conditions that might've otherwise remained dormant were there relatively little importance to one's life placed on social media use.

Here's an illustration.

We've all got that one friend who's posts on Facebook or Twitter (I'll be discussing these two mediums in this posts; the former more so as that's what I'm mostly familiar with) who've gone to the gym. Not only have they gone to the gym, but they've eaten some sort of healthy snack prior to going. Not only that but they also might've consumed some sort of health drink. But it doesn't even end there... They also take photos of what they're doing (they might even compile these images into a collage with some cleverly constructed meme to go along with it)!

Another friend you have is always travelling. Or so it seems, since most the images posted are of them engaged in some sort of extracurricular activity. Now intellectually you might understand that they're not always travelling (after all they might also post some mundane aspects of life), but emotionally you're affected. 'Why aren't I getting out more? Others do it all the time!' It might make you question your social life given the portrayal of others' lives on social media.

Now none of these activities in and of themselves present a mental instability (in the past I've also done one or more of the latter), but I say we look at these in light of what we understand about personality disorders, specifically narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) describes personality disorders (although notoriously difficult to get a full understanding of since most of the symptomatology is overlapping) as personality types that deviate significantly from the 'norm' (APA, 2013). They lead to stress within the person and those around them. They're also (generally) not helping the person afflicted in their their own daily life.

NPD describes a person that's always thinking of themselves. They have an elevated sense of self worth and esteem and a need for admiration. They're constantly seeking attention and generally have a lack of empathy towards other (i.e. they find it difficult to see where other people are coming from, and don't really care about how they affect others' moods).

NPD is a great example to use in this post because it's pretty amusing to talk about in the context of social media posts. I don't at all mean to say that people that are constantly posting about themselves are suffering from NPD, but I want to say that when there's a tendency towards such a personality style (or 'disorder'), social media might play a huge part in accentuating it.

People that are always using the words "I" and "Me" at the expense of "We" in their posts generally use social media to back their own selfish agenda. They might post when things are always going great in their life to the expense of when things aren't going so well (though someone suffering from NPD might not see that distinction all too well).

Social media provides a platform for people of that nature to gain a greater audience and therefore make themselves feel important. Their symptoms come more to the fore. If there's a predisposition towards a particular mental illness, social media might do well in pronouncing the symptom formation. That doesn't only go for NPD, but other disorders as well. 

Take major depression for example. Sophia (a case in point) has Facebook. She's also been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). After pulling herself out of bed well after noon she picks up her phone, goes on Facebook and checks her notifications (or she might've been doing this in bed before finding the strength to rise). There's none! None! The night before she posted "Life's not worth living any longer!" and it seems that no one cares! Okay, she's only got about 70 friends (a lower number of friends on Facebook has been shown to create higher rates of mental meltdown; more friends has the adverse effect) on there, but at least one could have commented!

What happens next? Her suicidal ideation increases given she now has confirmation for her ruminations regarding her depleted worth. With suicidal ideation there's an increased probability for suicide attempts, and then completion.

The above might have been a bit of an extreme proposition, but it paints the picture I want to portray.

For so many people, social media has become their social world. Their life is consumed by the pictures, the comments, the 'life' they have on screen. They live a life they want to portray to others, but in doing so they negate their actual life. Their fantasy life has become their actual life, and their actual life has become a vehicle for propagating their life on screen.

In doing so, they've neglected themselves and objected themselves. One would do well to wonder if such an experience would lead to nothing other than mental health problems.

I also want to talk a little bit about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in relation to 'iDisorder'.

Day by day we're running around frantically busying ourselves with what we call our daily life. Whether we're working at home, at a corporation, being a parent, or not working at all, we've had the experience of engaging with the social life on screen.

We're constantly checking our phone. Be it for new social media comments, emails, or the like, we're engaged. Phantom Pocket Vibration Syndrome (PPVS) describes the working of this obsession we live with on a day-by-day basis. You've probably guessed what it means already.

Well, PPVS describes the phenomenon of feeling what's not there. You're walking along on your way to work and you feel a vibration in your jacket pocket. Checking it, there's nothing! Have you experienced it? Well, according to Rosen (2013) 89% of participants in a psychological study have. 

What's going on?

Well, in simple terms, we've been so accustomed to technology in our lives that we've re-wired our brains. Neural pathways are formed, and the more we use the more we make use of these pathways in our brains. Because there have been countless times where we've felt real vibrations in our pockets, our brains react in such a way that when we experience neurological stimulation (say our jacket pocket hits the right side of our chest) our brain attributes it to our phone rather than our jacket. Our brain convinces us that we've been 'notified' and we must check it now (Rosen, 2013)!

How's this relate to OCD? You might've guessed. When we're so anxious that we constantly need to check our techs, we're creating obsessive ruminations that we can't seem to master. These obsessions turn into compulsions. These compulsions take some of us over so much so that we have to be checking our devices every few minutes in case somebody's commented.

If you relate this to somebody that's got a genetic or environmental predisposition for OCD, then they could be in a whole world of hurt when engaging constantly with social media.

I want to bring to the fore, as a finality, how social media relates to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This is an interesting one. 

You pick up your phone. Open Facebook or Twitter. There's a comment! You're immersed in this discussion you're having; hyper focused. You can't pull your attention away. Your focus is not even averted when your partner walks into the room and tries to initiate discussion. 'I'm almost finished and then I can talk' you say.

You have an attention deficit (you can't pull your attention away from what you're doing at the moment). You're hyperactive because you're always needing to do something. If it's tech related, then it fits into this context. You're not engaging in mindful activity. You're not 'stopping to smell the roses' but always on the move with what you're doing. 

In short, if you have a tendency towards ADHD, then tech might accentuate it.

Well what can we do then?

Here's a few tips taken from Dr. Rosen. 

Every hour or two take about ten minutes to calm your brain. It's surprising how little it takes to 're-set' your mindset and get on achieving what you want to.

Take a short walk. Listen to music. Exercise. Meditate. Talk to somebody (Rosen, 2013).

Just rip yourself from your technology and recharge your psychology!

For more resources, visit Dr. Rosen's website, or All in the Mind with Lynne Malcolm.

Dr. Larry Rosen - Expert on the effects technology has on our psychology

References

American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Rosen, L. (2013). Phantom pocket vibration syndrome. Psychology Today. Retrieved from: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rewired-the-psychology-technology/201305/phantom-pocket-vibration-syndrome.

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