The Hazards of Social Media on Your Mental Health. Learn how social media can trigger or exacerbate psychosis symptoms in some cases.
Social Media and Mental Health - Social media is one way to communicate and interact with others in the digital age. Social media can provide benefits such as expanding your network, acquiring information, and filling leisure time.
However, social media can also have negative impacts on your mental health, especially if you use it excessively or unwisely.
A recent study by Uri Nitzan, a researcher from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Shalvata Mental Health Care Center, indicates that social media can trigger or worsen psychosis symptoms.
Psychosis is a mental disorder characterized by difficulty distinguishing between reality and imagination. People experiencing psychosis may have hallucinations, delusions, anxiety, confusion, and bizarre behavior.
Nitzan's research is based on his experience in treating patients who developed psychosis due to social media use. He identified several common characteristics in his patients, including:
- They felt lonely or afraid of losing or being separated from loved ones.
- They were not particularly tech-savvy.
- They had no previous history of psychosis or abuse.
Nitzan explained that his patients sought solace from their loneliness by forming intense virtual relationships through social media. Initially, these relationships provided comfort and happiness. However, over time, they turned into a source of suffering, betrayal, and privacy violations.
"My patients developed psychosis symptoms that matched their situations, including delusions related to the people behind the screens and their relationships through social media," said Nitzan.
Nitzan also identified several factors that could lead to a distortion of reality in his patients, including:
- Geographical and spatial differences between patients and the people they knew through social media.
- The absence of non-verbal cues like facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language in online communication.
- A tendency to idealize the people they encountered on social media and become overly intimate without meeting in person.
All of these factors could cause patients to lose touch with reality and develop psychotic conditions.
In conclusion, this brief article highlights the potential dangers of "Social Media Potentially Leading to Mental Illness." We hope it is informative and engaging for readers. 😊
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