'How social media helped me deal with my mental illness'
Social media is often recognised as having a negative effect on people's lives as it encourages some people to be superficial, give others abuse, "troll" people etc. Even though social media clearly has lots of negative side effects; some people have found that it helped them deal with their mental illness.
The anonymity that some networks provide means that people can open up about their problems without fearing negative perceptions of mental health. Additionally, people are able to connect with others who are going through the same situations/issues which helps because it allows them to feel less isolated.
A 23 year old called Sophie Hawker suffered from anxiety, she found a tweet on twitter about "someone going for their first CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy - a type of counselling) session for anxiety" this made her research further into it and gain the support and advice she needed. She said it gave her "confidence to talk about it in real life because I'd already practised talking about it online".
Madeline is a 21 year old that found Reddit and YouTube helpful. She said "The social media channels where you are interacting with people that you don't know are more helpful for mental health issues".
In my opinion, I think the media needs to be recognised for it's positive effects as well as the negative ones. Although there might be more negative effects to media and the anonymity it provides, there are also positive sides to it as it helps people express themselves in ways they can't do face to face with others. It helps people find the support and information they need to help them with whatever issues they might be going through.
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