On Wednesday, February 8 at 19:30 GMT:
Social media has performed a transformative function in elevating consciousness and destigmatising conversations about psychological well being. However might speaking about psychological well being issues on-line truly be making our psychological well being worse?

Well being professionals say viral movies about ADHD, melancholy and bipolar dysfunction are producing thousands and thousands of views on TikTok. However a lot of this on-line content material can comprise inaccurate, complicated and doubtlessly dangerous misinformation about psychological well being.

The progress of “remedy TikTok” has attracted skilled therapists and psychiatrists to make use of the platform to advocate for psychological well being consciousness. However some are involved by the development of influencers with out medical credentials who’re posting about their very own signs of psychological well being situations. Such content material could lead on individuals to self-diagnose, delay searching for skilled care, or worse, expose them to corporations promoting questionable therapies.

Through the pandemic, many turned to on-line areas – TikTok particularly – for assist and details about psychological well being. In 2020, social media mentions of “psychological well being” jumped 80.53% from 2019, in accordance with analysis by the influencer advertising and marketing firm Captiv8.

On this episode of The Stream, we’ll speak to well being professionals about the advantages and drawbacks of consuming psychological well being content material on-line.