Talking about mental health online: staying safe and finding support

If you’re engaging with mental health content on social media, it’s important to think about how to make sure it doesn’t have a negative impact on your wellbeing.

If you’ve seen something upsetting online, find out how you can report it or get support.

Not all of the information you can find online about mental health is safe or accurate.

If you’re not sure whether you can trust information, you can check who’s posting it. Is it a trusted source, like an official NHS account, Best For You, or a national organisation like Mind or Childline? If a person is posting it, are they linking to a trusted source? Are they posting a fact that has proof, or their opinion about something?

Some people use social media to talk about symptoms of neurodevelopmental conditions like autism and ADHD, as well as anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions. They might also share experiences that are common for people with those diagnoses.

This can help with:

• raising awareness
• encouraging people to ask for help and support
• making others feel less alone
• sharing information about ways to cope or manage

But content can be unhelpful when it suggests that having some things that are symptoms of a mental health condition means you definitely have the condition.

For example, some people eat the same foods over and over again because they’re autistic, while others just find certain meals work for them because they’re tasty, affordable, and easy to make. Some people forget why they’ve walked into a room because they have ADHD, while others might just have a lot on their mind.

If someone notices that they have some of the symptoms that can be linked with a diagnosis, or there are things that are getting in the way of their life, it can be a helpful prompt for them to ask an adult for help or find mental health support. It can also encourage people to be kinder to themselves.

But if people start to label or diagnose themselves based on things they’ve seen online, without a full understanding of the condition and professional support to understand what’s going on for them, it can make life harder.

It can also lead to people more widely misunderstanding conditions, like thinking bipolar disorder is about mood swings or autism is just about having an intense interest.

Sometimes, people share helpful ways of coping or managing that everyone can benefit from without needing a diagnosis. For example, healthy sleep habits can be really important for people who have experienced psychosis, but other people can benefit too. 

We know that algorithms (the sets of rules that apps follow when showing you content) are designed to keep you engaged on social media. This means that if you interact with content about a topic, you’ll often be shown more and more content about the same thing.

This isn’t always a problem – for example, if the topic is something you’re interested in like a hobby or style of music. But if you’re always being shown content about mental health and recovery, it can be difficult to think about (or enjoy) other things, even if the mental health content is positive.

We also know that algorithms don’t always get it right. If you’re following and engaging with content about recovery from a specific mental health condition, for example, apps might show you unhealthy or dangerous content about that mental health condition, because they’re not able to tell the difference (or because shocking content might keep you scrolling).

The Online Safety Act is a new set of laws to protect people online. Part of it means that websites and social media platforms have to consider how algorithms could affect people’s experiences online. We don’t know how much of a difference this will make yet, but the hope is that this act will reduce the amount of harmful content online and also make it less likely that algorithms will recommend it.

Some organisations provide specific online spaces for talking about wellbeing and mental health, where everyone agrees to post in a supportive, helpful way and adults are around to check in on conversations and keep people safe.

People have lots of different reasons for posting about eating disorders online and it’s important that if you’re looking at or making content about food, exercise, disordered eating, or exercise, you know how to keep yourself safe.

There’s lots of content about self-harm and suicide on social media. Some of it is helpful, like quotes about recovery or ideas for healthy coping strategies. People might also want to raise awareness of support services, share their story of recovery, or remember someone who’s died.

But some content about self-harm and suicide is unhelpful. This can be on purpose, if someone’s deliberately trying to encourage it, but it can also be accidental, for example, if someone’s sharing their story with triggering details, or is posting asking for help without thinking about the impact it might have on other people. Sometimes, people might try to look for unhelpful information online when they’re struggling.

It’s important to post safely and responsibly to help other people stay safe.

The Samaritans website has some helpful guides about:

• Sharing your experiences of self-harm and suicidal feelings online safely
• Talking about suicide safely online
• Remembering friends or family who have died by suicide in a safe way online

If you come across something that’s distressing or inappropriate, you might feel embarrassed, anxious, or scared – or you might not know how you feel. All of these feelings are normal and OK.

Whatever you’ve seen, and however you came across the content, there are things you can do about it and ways you can get support.

If you something distressing or inappropriate on social media, you can report it.

Depending on the type of content, you can report it directly to the app or through another organisation who can also support you.

You don’t have to report things on your own. You can ask a trusted adult to help you make a report.

If you’ve come across something that’s made you uncomfortable, it’s a good idea to speak to an adult you trust – for example, a parent, carer, or teacher.

They can talk to you about the thoughts and feelings you have, whether you want to report what you’ve seen, and what you can do to avoid seeing upsetting content in future.

If you find that you’re still thinking about something you’ve seen in the past, talking to someone about it can help you understand what’s going on in your head think about how you can move forward.