Mental Health on the Internet

 

I'm interested in the field of mental health and the ways that the field affects clinicians, and then the ways those effects reach clients.

Based on my preliminary googling and clicking-through, the field of mental health is primarily expressed in the following ways on the internet.

_____ _____

Self-help style click bait articles
Like this Lifehack article which offers 15 Mental Tricks including Number 4: "focus on the positive" and Number 5: "don't overanalyze."

Resource websites created by governments or nonprofits
For example, SAMSHA's section on "disorders" where the curious can "Learn about the most common mental and substance use disorders and how SAMHSA works to reduce their impact on America’s communities."

Community forums for people with mental health challenges or their loved ones
Such as the Depression Forums discussions where a person might share, or read, something like: "I myself have come to the realization over the past few months that I find myself in co-dependant relationships - me being the co-dependant one.  I have yet to really accept this for some reason."

Therapist websites
 I've linked here to a therapist who designs websites for other therapists and has a bunch of examples. These often pose rhetorical questions and are full of buzzwords like "trauma-informed."

_____ _____ 

All of these examples are the result of simple google searches. Finding search terms that took me to something different or interesting was nearly impossible. I finally managed to do it by searching "mental health satire," but I think it is significant that critical perspectives are really absent from the field online.  When I say critical perspectives, I mean people who are in the field, and believe in the value of psychotherapy, but do not align with the current favored models of treatment. Or practitioners who do not believe that DSM V diagnoses are real in the way that sinus infections are real. Or people who talk about the implications of the current crisis in reproducing results in various studies.

There is a strong allegiance to science, and a strange tendency to oversimplify, when mental health is represented to the general population. Take the above primary examples of Mental Health on the Internet. This is despite the fact that, at least in my experience, there is a clear understanding among therapists that the processes involved are very complex.

My question is: why do we stand for this poor representation? Why isn't there an outrage about oversimplification and inconsistencies?

Telling somebody "don't overanalyze" is not likely to be helpful unless the client has never thought of such a strategy and upon trying it, finds that they are able to do it with some success. As someone with moderate anxiety, my response to such an admonition would be, "Fuck off."

I'm not saying that all therapists print out click bait articles and read them aloud to their clients. I'm saying that as a field, in which knowledge is produced and then affects people via institutions, it is outrageous that therapists are encouraged to create these types of blogposts in order to attract clients.

For example PsychCentral's article on developing an online presence, Overcoming Blogophobia, where tip number 2 recommends:
"Give quick nuggets of advice or recommend resources that speak to your ideal client in a bulleted or numbered list. For example — Top 5 parenting books, 6 ways to survive new parenthood, 5 things never to say to your teen, or 10 tips for managing depression."

I can imagine two possible effects. One is that the writer of such reductive advice identifies with the simplification of their practice wisdom, and then is more likely to dispense simplified wisdom to future clients. The other is that the writer feels crappy writing such baloney. Neither seems like it does much to move the field toward increasing its ability to support or help people facing problems.

Again, why do we stand for these oversimplifications? I believe that they have real negative effects. Telling a person what to do inherently limits their possibilities for action: they only have two choices to do it, or to fail.

What would an alternative to self help clickbait be? One example is #copingchat on Twitter where people describe ways that they cope in order to (it seems like) be witnessed and share with others. It, in comparison with 15 Mental Tricks, does not ask anything of its reader and does not imply that those suffering must respond with intentional action. Instead it opens possibility, creates community, and represents the complexity of this whole thing.

To wit:

@unsuicide I don't have a tattoo yet but I was gonna get a Star Trek one that covers my scars. Gonna save up for it #CopingChat

— misty knight 🇭🇹 (@salivationarmy) October 14, 2016

To conclude. Therapists have the opportunity to shift the field from one that dispenses advice and limits possibility to one that elicits unique strategies, skills, and knowledge in order to expand possibility. 

Why not solicit client "nuggets of wisdom" and, with permission and privacy, share clients words on the Therapist Website? This would have multiple effects: it would honor the knowledge and skills of clients, it would provide real examples of the results of that particular therapist's conversations, and it would serve as a possible inspiration to others.