A new study has shown that social networks do not always help people with unstable mentality. Sometimes socializing in a virtual environment only aggravates the symptoms.
Dr Keelin Howard of the New University of Buckinghamshire has studied the impact of social media on people with depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety and schizophrenia. Her study involved 20 people aged 23 to 68 years. The respondents admitted that social networks help them overcome the feeling of loneliness, feel like full members of the online community and receive the necessary support when they really need it. “It’s nice to have friends next to you, it helps to get rid of the feeling of loneliness”; “Interlocutors are very important for mental health: sometimes you just need to speak out, and this is easy to do through a social network,” this is how respondents describe their attitude to social networks. In addition, they admit that “likes” and approving comments under posts help them raise their self-esteem. And since some of them find it difficult to communicate live, social networks become a good way to get support from friends.
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But there is also a downside to the process. All participants in the study who experienced an exacerbation of the disease (for example, an attack of paranoia) said that during these periods, communication in social networks only aggravated their condition. It began to seem to someone that the messages of strangers were relevant only to them and to no one else, others were unnecessarily worried about how people would react to their own records. Those with schizophrenia said they felt they were being monitored by psychiatrists and hospital staff via social media, and those with bipolar disorder said they were overly active during their manic phase and left a lot of messages that they later regretted. One student said that reports from classmates about preparing for exams caused him extreme anxiety and panic attacks. And someone complained of an increased sense of vulnerability due to the idea that outsiders can find out through social networks information that they were not going to share with them. Of course, over time, the participants in the experiment got used to it and understood what to do in order not to aggravate their condition … And yet: are the subjects so far from the truth when it seems to them that they are being watched, that information can be read by those who should not have anything to do with it, and too active communication can make you regret it later? .. There is something to think about for those of us who do not suffer from the listed deviations.