Smiling on Social Media? Maybe It’s Time for Help

If you’re like the majority of the world, chances are that you spend most of your days online, primarily on various social networks. Nowadays, everyone’s life is online, with pictures and videos of smiling people plastered all over the place. However, studies have shown that this is largely a façade, and means that you are miserable. Not just miserable, but there’s a good chance you have mental health problems.

We all know that mental health is a pretty serious issue that’s facing the world. It’s inescapable at this point. According to various large mental health websites, approximately one in five people suffer from a mental disorder in America. It’s probably close to equally as worse for the rest of the world, especially in third world countries where poverty is rampant.

The good news is that people who have serious conditions, or what’s generally known as ‘severe’ cases, are largely getting the help they need. Additionally, it’s no longer considered the olden days, where no one spoke about mental health. Everyone is talking about it. Reddit (along with hundreds of other websites) has a section dedicated to mental health. Another thing we should be happy about is that these social users generally encourage their peers to seek out therapy. However, for the casual social media user, they don’t realize how bad their state of mental health is. This oftentimes causes a quick deterioration, which naturally can lead to some pretty bad scenarios. If you believe you fit that description, it’s time to get help.

Unfortunately, it’s not so simple. There are several factors that hold people back from getting help. Stigma is the obvious one. Then there’s lack of available help, financial constraints, and the mindset of ‘how does talking’ to a therapist help me’, among many other reasons. There are even people who have claimed that their therapist relationship isn’t what they’d like. Sometimes cases like this exist and it happens, but it’s often exaggerated. Professionals have been trained to provide help while being compassionate and understanding. In cases like that, therapists go to great lengths to create a strong and balanced relationship with their client (in what’s known as gestalt therapy). This means that the person receiving therapy needs to take responsibility for their own life. Most social media users don’t understand this, both due to immaturity/being self-centered and simply from a lack of professional knowledge. Because they don’t know this, they don’t seek out help. And thus, their situation declines at an ever-increasing rate.

If this seems to be your life, it’s time for two things. The first is to recognize that this is a problem and to take steps to limit your social media activity. The second step is to look for a licensed psychologist or counselor near you. Don’t be so quick to brush aside your smiling façade. It could be much worse than you believe.