Interesting post today about how a Vitamin D deficiency can cause not just physical problems, but can have a real factor in mental health as well.
Since there’s no better source of Vitamin D than the sun, take some time to go get a little. It may not solve all of your mental health issues, but it will certainly be more useful than not having enough!
According to cornut32, Friday April 17th is Wear Blue to Work Day, as part of April being Child Abuse Awareness Month. So, get your blue on, be sure to share with your friends why you’re wearing blue, and then check out the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, which is scheduled to be published that same…
This was the follow-up from a story regarding a sex offender who had fled to Spain and whose wife was later accused of murdering their two children. He has since committed suicide following his re-extradition back to the UK. You can read about it at the Daily Mail here. – CBG
Sibling Sexual Abuse tags: CA Create a Culture of Prevention tags: CA Men fear revealing sexual abuse: Voice of Russia tags: CA Strengthen child abuse reporting law advocate says tags: CA Socialization and Its Impact on Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse tags: CA The Truth About My Abuser’s Threats tags: CA Posted from Diigo. The…
I think that second quote is really the key. We’ve seen studies that are reported as showing that kids who use social media get more depression and anxiety, but those studies do not address the question of whether there’s any proof that the causality is in that direction and not the other. In other words, do teens who use social media a lot develop depression, or do depressed teens use social media more. This study seems to indicate it’s the latter. As we continue with a lot of social distancing, and activities being canceled and in person gatherings are very limited, we know everyone will be relying more on social media to stay connected, so this is an important question, and I think what this study, and others, really shows us is that there are ways to use social media as a positive influence on our mental health, and a way to use it that will not be a positive influence on our mental health.
In the physical world, we have these same choices. Do we interact with people who are toxic? Do we spend all of our time comparing ourselves to others? Do we isolate? Or do we find out tribe, our group of supportive friends/family that can interact socially in ways that help our mental health?
We all make those same choices on social media, but the key difference here is that if we simply don’t choose, and make no effort to make conscious decisions about who we follow and interact with, social network algorithms will make the decision for us. Anyone already struggling with mental health is maybe more likely to not spent much time thinking about these things, and just let the app show them what it wants to show them, and that is not necessarily going to be good for our anxiety. Especially right now.
So, if you find yourself feeling more anxious, angry, irritated, etc. every time you hop on Twitter or Instagram, maybe instead of just being that way, spend some time thinking about who you follow, and what they are bringing in to your life?
For any of my social media using readers, can you share some of your favorite positive accounts that you interact with to HELP your mental health?
I would imagine that part of the reason that no one agrees on the why and how has a lot to do with the fact that it might actually be different for different types of people.
For example, I know some folks who benefit from writing out their emotions, as the article talks about. But there are also those of us who benefit not necessarily from directly writing our emotions to release them, but gain self-awareness through focusing our thoughts to communicate them in written form.
Maybe, there are just a lot of ways writing is good for you, mentally?
