Pinterest is a social media platform where people explore creative ideas, express themselves, and enjoy the ideas of others. Pinterest, specifically, has gotten many people involved in the do-it-yourself lifestyle, encouraging recycling and sustainability as well as saving money. Not only that, you can find tips on everything from how to unclog a sink to how to turn a towel into a dress.
Pinterest continues to expand with more ideas and a greater sense of community. Now you can find tips regarding anxiety, depression, and other mental health or chronic health issues. This is what I want to focus on today. While Pinterest has been an excellent creative outlet for many people, I want to look at the positives and the negatives when it comes to pins regarding mental health or chronic illness.
Let’s Talk About Pinterest
While Pinterest has created an environment for everyone to enjoy, there are times when harmful content or bad content may be posted. Pinterest moderators have gotten extremely skilled at removing bad content, especially relating to self-harm.
Pinterest took it a step further and chose to direct those suffering from thoughts of self-harm to a helpline. Not only that, but they have also launched an initiative called Compassionate Search to help Pinterest users suffering from stress and anxiety. The Compassionate Search initiative aims to direct users to more helpful tools and techniques to combat negative emotions. It was developed by Pinterest along with a group of mental health organizations. The techniques are inspired by dialectical behavior therapy, a form of therapy that is effective against self-harm and mood disorders.
So when a user enters a related search term, such as self-harm, a pop-up will display with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline along with a link to exercises that can help users work through their difficult emotions and feelings.
The Pinterest company has done an excellent job of helping users who really need help. Many users may not know that there are tools and resources out there that can help them with their struggle. Pinterest has done its best to make sure the environment is a safe and good place for users to enjoy.
Why Pins Can Be Bad for Mental Health
It’s extremely wonderful that Pinterest implemented these measures so that everyone is able to express themselves in a positive way. However, everyone’s experience is different. Recently, I felt worn down by the burden of my invisible illnesses, both mental and physical. While I stay upbeat the majority of the time, every once in a while I feel like I just need to break down for a bit in order to stand back up and be positive again.
During this last time, I turned to Pinterest to find pins related to invisible illness. Oh boy was there a lot! I sat amazed by the many pins of other people who could relate to me. I was so excited at first until it began to wear on me. It slowly snuck up on me, wearing me down unexpectedly. But suddenly, I felt more down in the dumps than before I started searching on Pinterest.
I put my phone away to reflect on why this made me worse and came to an interesting realization. I do have a chronic illness that is debilitating. It causes symptoms that affect my everyday life. My illness can cause me to struggle to do what is considered “normal”, and that can bring me down. However, this is my life. I have adjusted, doing the best I can and I take comfort in knowing that I’m doing the best I can.
However, as I continue to read pins that tell me all the burdens of an invisible illness, my illness begins to feel heavier. By being bombarded with constant reminders of my struggle, I find it difficult to enjoy myself. At the end of my Pinterest experience, I wanted to just curl up in bed and sleep for days. I’m still exploring why it had such a strong effect on me. However, I do know that many of the pins, while true, focused solely on the negative which brought me down. After reading so many quotes and thoughts regarding how big of a struggle an invisible illness is, my illness felt like so much more of a burden.
Why Pinterest Can Be Good for Mental Health
I took a Pinterest break for a bit while I was reflecting and a few days later went back through and looked at invisible illness pins. This time, I recognized which pins boosted my mental well-being and which ones brought me down. I discovered that pins that were encouraging were the best ones I could find. My favorite one is a pin that says “You’re not unreliable, your health is.” It is a wonderful reminder to myself that while I have limitations, I need to not take the blame because my health causes me to be unreliable and often unable to commit.
Other pins that I greatly enjoyed were filled with humor regarding invisible illness. They made light of ridiculous situations that people with invisible illnesses find themselves in. Other pins had tips regarding invisible illnesses from handling symptoms to talking to others. I especially liked the solution-oriented pins.
These types of pins made me feel like I could relate and like I wasn’t alone. They also didn’t constantly remind me of how much of a struggle I have to deal with every day. To be honest, it’s important that I don’t dwell on how much I struggle, or else I’d find it difficult to get out of bed. I needed to accept my limitations and that meant accepting my life as normal. So in the end, I think Pinterest can improve mental wellbeing or can harm it. It’s up to the user to decide which pins help and which pins bring them down.
For those out there with an invisible illness, where do you go to feel a sense of community? Do you find that Pinterest helps you feel better? What are your thoughts?