The Hidden Danger in Your Social Media Feeds

Social media is a part of everyday life for many of us. We view curated stories from friends, celebrities and brands that are of interest. We keep in contact with people who mean a lot to us, or once did, in a world where many of us end up relocating from our hometowns in search of new adventures and opportunities.

These reasons make sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram a huge positive in our lives, but there could be a hidden danger to your mental health lurking everyday in your social media feeds. This danger is vicarious traumatization. In the past, this has been a particular concern for mental health providers, but is a phenomenon that anyone may experience.

We haven't been prepared to understand the implications of social media. Experiencing vicarious trauma (sometimes out of our own immediate control) is a risk we take when we engage in social media regularly these days.  Open any feed and you will readily see photos, images or videos of violence and injury. You’ll also hear stories of suicide or recovery from mental health or addiction issues. While the latter stories help us authentically connect in ways that we haven’t before, all of this exposure can also negatively impact our mental health.

The idea of social media negatively impacting our mental health isn’t new, but few have talked about the impact of indirect experiencing, or vicarious trauma, intentionally. To better understand what vicarious trauma is, it’s important to take a look at a basic description of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

PTSD is a mental health condition characterized by a cluster of responses (or symptoms) after experiencing a traumatic event. These indicators may manifest as:

• Intrusive thoughts or memories of the event(s)
• Physical reactions to cues reminding you of the event(s) ranging from discomfort to dissociation and even re-experiencing traumatic event(s) in the present
• Intense and significant responses to being exposed to triggers (such as sights, images, videos, sounds, smells, etc.) that remind you of said event(s)
• Thoughts of self-blame, guilt or hopelessness
• Feelings of sadness, fear, guilt, anxiety, etc. and greater difficulty experiencing positive feelings such as happiness, peace, joy, etc.

All of these symptoms must have been experienced in the context of some traumatic event(s). In the past, this only included events like war or sexual assault, but the criteria for PTSD has become broader over time. Now, the diagnostic criteria indicates it is possible to experience PTSD even if you did not directly experience or live the triggering event yourself. Fear or threat of seriously bodily injury to someone you know also qualifies as an activating event. That means that you could potentially also experience PTSD if you knew a friend or loved one experienced terrible events.

What does that have to do with social media?

Consider that you’re a Black mother. Routinely you log on to Facebook and encounter racist rhetoric or see yet another video of police abuse of power resulting in the death of a young Black person. How might you feel to see these videos over and over again? How might that impact your ability to see the world as a safe space for your child(ren)?  How might that impact your mood and ways you navigate different spaces with your child(ren)?

Now imagine you’re a trans woman of color and you predominantly have  found social safety and security online. Almost every week not only do you encounter transphobic rhetoric in comment sections of posts and articles, but you also cross news story after news story of yet another young trans woman of color dying at the hands of someone else. How would that make you feel?

You may end up feeling pretty unsafe walking in the world. You might become less prone to interact and trust others. You might wish that you were someone else. You might wish that the identities of your loved ones weren’t reflected in these kinds of horrific stories. You might feel hopeless and powerless. Everyday, on every social feed, you’re reminded of how your life is viewed as less than. You question the validity of your worth in the world. You wonder if anyone would care if that happened to you or your loved one.

You might hide. As that mother, you might wake up in the middle of the night in terror that your young son is out late. As a trans person, you may not perform gender in the way you might ideally for fear of bodily injury or worse.

There are many people with a whole host of different identities that may be reflected in the stories you see and read in social media. And the reality is, if you’re on these sites multiple times per day, you’re consistently faced with images of people who look like you experiencing violence, at worst, and sometimes snarky comments and/or personal attacks.

How do we navigate this confusing world of endless connectivity?

The answer may not be to disconnect from social media completely. After all, if you disconnect you will miss out on the positivity and connectedness you experience from your online communities. Taking time be more intentional and mindful about your use, as opposed to following each impulse to check your feeds, could be a wise way to manage your connectivity and moderate your exposure to traumatizing material.

The next time you log on, ask yourself, "What am I hoping to gain right now?" One simple question might drastically change your relationship to social media and how you use it. Until then, happy scrolling.

Lady Gaga Opens Up About Living with PTSD

Performer Lady Gaga recently opened up about living with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The condition affects about 8 million US adults each year (US Department of Veteran Affairs).  Lady Gaga recently penned an open letter for her Born This Way Foundation that I am sharing here in its entirety to help those who may be living with PTSD.

She writes:

"I have wrestled for some time about when, how and if I should reveal my diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). After five years of searching for the answers to my chronic pain and the change I have felt in my brain, I am finally well enough to tell you. There is a lot of shame attached to mental illness, but it’s important that you know that there is hope and a chance for recovery.It is a daily effort for me, even during this album cycle, to regulate my nervous system so that I don’t panic over circumstances that to many would seem like normal life situations. Examples are leaving the house or being touched by strangers who simply want to share their enthusiasm for my music.

I also struggle with triggers from the memories I carry from my feelings of past years on tour when my needs and requests for balance were being ignored. I was overworked and not taken seriously when I shared my pain and concern that something was wrong. I ultimately ended up injured on the Born This Way Ball. That moment and the memory of it has changed my life forever. The experience of performing night after night in mental and physical pain ingrained in me a trauma that I relive when I see or hear things that remind me of those days.

I also experience something called dissociation which means that my mind doesn’t want to relive the pain so “I look off and I stare” in a glazed over state. As my doctors have taught me, I cannot express my feelings because my pre-frontal cortex (the part of the brain that controls logical, orderly thought) is overridden by the amygdala (which stores emotional memory) and sends me into a fight or flight response.  My body is in one place and my mind in another. It’s like the panic accelerator in my mind gets stuck and I am paralyzed with fear.

When this happens I can’t talk. When this happens repeatedly, it makes me have a common PTSD reaction which is that I feel depressed and unable to function like I used to. It’s harder to do my job. It’s harder to do simple things like take a shower. Everything has become harder. Additionally, when I am unable to regulate my anxiety, it can result in somatization, which is pain in the body caused by an inability to express my emotional pain in words.

But I am a strong and powerful woman who is aware of the love I have around me from my team, my family and friends, my doctors and from my incredible fans who I know will never give up on me.  I will never give up on my dreams of art and music. I am continuing to learn how to transcend this because I know I can.  If you relate to what I am sharing, please know that you can too.

Traditionally, many associate PTSD as a condition faced by brave men and women that serve countries all over the world. While this is true, I seek to raise awareness that this mental illness affects all kinds of people, including our youth. I pledge not only to help our youth not feel ashamed of their own conditions, but also to lend support to those servicemen and women who suffer from PTSD. No one’s invisible pain should go unnoticed.

I am doing various modalities of psychotherapy and am on medicine prescribed by my psychiatrist.  However, I believe that the most inexpensive and perhaps the best medicine in the world is words. Kind words…positive words…words that help people who feel ashamed of an invisible illness to overcome their shame and feel free. This is how I and we can begin to heal. I am starting today, because secrets keep you sick. And I don’t want to keep this secret anymore.

A note from my psychologist, Dr. Nancy: ‘If you think you might have PTSD, please seek professional help. There is so much hope for recovery. Many people think that the event that stimulated PTSD needs to be the focus. Yet often, people will experience the same event and have completely different reactions to it. It is my opinion that trauma occurs in an environment where your feelings and emotional experience are not valued, heard and understood.  The specific event is not the cause of traumatic experience.  This lack of a “relational home” for feelings is the true cause of traumatic experience.

Finding support is key.

Click here or visit the National Institute for Mental Health for more information on PTSD in all its forms and where to find help. If you are in crisis now, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8225)." 

What is PTSD?

Posttraumatic stress disorder (or PTSD for short) has become a more widely recognized mental health condition in recent decades, but what is PTSD?  I hope to provide you with some basic and insightful information below.PTSD was originally a term applied to soldiers returning from war, but it wasn't always called PTSD as it is today.  Previously, the cluster of symptoms was categorized as "shell shock" or "soldier's heart".  Thankfully, psychology began to recognize that not only soldiers could experience posttraumatic stress disorder and began to more acutely study and accurately define a condition that affects about 8 million people each year in the United States. PTSD can be a crippling condition but can be treated effectively with a supportive therapist.But what is PTSD exactly? The current criteria for PTSD include the following:

1. Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence
2. Symptoms following the event such as intrusive memories, recurring dreams, flashbacks or other bodily reactions to cues related to the event
3. Avoidance of things associated with the event (for example: similar or actual location, people or related feelings or thoughts)
4. A generally negative change in thoughts or mood following the event(s)
5. Changes in level of reactivity or heightened arousal beginning or worsening after the event(s) (for example: being startled very easily, feeling "on edge" or having difficult sleeping)

All these symptoms must be met for a period longer than a month and must occur following the activating event(s).  Traditionalists typically view the development of PTSD as very rigid and involving "serious bodily injury", however myself, and many contemporary therapists, also view longstanding physical and emotional abuse as potential experiences leading up to the development of PTSD.Additionally, historically PTSD was thought to only affect those with direct experience of the event(s) but current criteria indicates that people who have witnessed, or know a close family or loved one being harmed, may experience PTSD as well.So what type of events do we think of relating to PTSD?

• Directly experienced the event(s) or witnessed the event(s)
• Had serious physical injury from the event(s)
• You believed you or a family member (or loved one) was in serious danger during the event(s)
• You felt helpless or otherwise had a severe reaction to the event(s) such as shaking, crying, or feeling apart from the surrounding area

Given the presented criteria, you can see how many of us in the totality of our life experiences could potentially be affected by PTSD at some point in our lives.  If you believe you or someone you love might be dealing with the criteria mentioned above, I recommend you seek out consultation with a therapist to discuss ongoing support. Even if you don't meet the diagnostic criteria of PTSD, there is always room to be healthier and feel liberated from experiences that may be haunting you or limiting your progress in life.   

The Veteran's Administration takes on PTSD

Thankfully, these days many more people understand how debilitating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder can be and in this video from the National Center for PTSD the daily symptoms and difficulties are made even clearer.  To date, I don't think I've seen any tool so succinctly capture what PTSD entails.  And while this video is very accurate, let's not forget it's not only veterans who can experience PTSD.  Almost 5.2 million U.S. citizens experience PTSD in any given year (Source). Please watch for more information below: