Good Lifestyle

Women constituteThe majority of people living with mood disorders in Canada. However, treatments and resources adapted to their needs are still lacking. Looking for ways to feel better, many women are turning to social media platforms like Instagram.

Give meaning to the phenomenon called "Instagram therapy"I interviewed more than 20 women in 2020 using Instagram for mental health care. I found that women are turning to the image sharing platform to counter the absence of resources available. Instagram Allows them to tackle problems related to their gender identity, connecting to others with similar experiences and, finally, feel less alone.

Although the awareness of mental health has increased, especially during the pandemic, stigma, bias and sex-based expectationscontinue to affect the well-being of women at a growing rate.

Hysterical stories

These problems go back to19th century psychiatry. Women have been described as hysterical or "crazy" and retreated among the mental patients, entertaining the idea that madness is inherent in the nature of women.

As a result, women are not just more likely to be labeled as crazy, but traditional psychology also tends to generalize their experiences, without taking into consideration that sex is lived differently depending on race, identity. sexual and other social determinants. Today, although years of research have challenged the association between women and madness, gender standards continue to affect the well-being of women and accessibility to adequate care.

Validation and community

For the women I interviewed, Instagram acts as a tool for the fight against these standards as well as to seek validation and the community. While Instagram therapy has beencalled as dangerousMy research reveals that Instagram helps to advance women in their recovery because they can access information and make connections that are not possible otherwise.

Cécile, a philosophy student, decided to ask for help for his diet disorder just before the pandemic. When the lock started, it remembers its Instagram stream filled with memes on weight gain for quarantine, which triggers particularly. Instead of leaving Instagram, one of the few places she could always connect with people, she decided to start tracking the hashtags like #bodypositirtivemovement and sharing her recovery path in her Instagram stories.

Cecile uses his stories to change the conversation on the plan and add links to existing resources. For her, doing this job really "help women feel less than alone, it creates a feeling of solidarity."

Emilie, a biracian woman living with widespread anxiety, does not share his personal path on Instagram, but actively uses the contents of accounts such as@BrowngirlTherapy and@letterstoblackwomen in its recovery process. His mental health, she told me during our interview, can not be dissociated from the daily racism that she experiments as a black woman - the content she follows on Instagram allows her to approach this dimension.

"It provides a validation for things that are not necessarily treated in therapy or that I think I can not talk about people around me."

For example, it is thanks to these accounts that Emilie became aware of many micro-aggression she knew but she did not know that she had an effect on her well-being.

Contest the gap between the sexes

But to think that Instagram could challenge the gender gap in mental health is not what comes automatically in mind when mental illness and social media are associated. In fact, social media researchers have shown that Instagram can be autonomous, but also harmful in perpetuationunrealistic sexual expectations.

The Instagram algorithm structure our network interactions in such a way as to transmit certain content and other shadows, encouraging the standardized definitions of femininity and personal care to endure.

For example, Instagram promotes aesthetically pleasant recovery models such as bubble baths and scented candles that continue to put responsibility for well-being between women instead of social infrastructure. Women are therefore not only forced to use Instagram to face the lack of mental health resources, but also to self-help, empowering and processing it promises.

Refuse the conversation

But the impact of social media but various mental health can be, the stories of my participants have highlighted the need to reformulate the social media and mental health discourse. Although there is a tendency to focus on how the mental health aggravates Instagram of women, there is an urgent need to recognize that women are also turning to the platform to consult information about their health and find recognition.

This is particularly important because currently Instagram content maintains the order related to mental illness in a way thatharmful for these communities. We must recognize that Instagram is not always bad for mental health to maintain the responsible application of other stigmatizing women. In fact, it should be Instagram's responsibility to ensure that women can continue to create and access vital information and communities without being censored.

Finally, the displayed content represents an important corpus of knowledge that must be taken seriously if we always want to create resources that are better adapted to the needs of women. Attend the complexity of Using Instagram Women allows us to better understand the limits and opportunities for digital care when our health is increasingly linked to mobile applications.

The Government of Canada isThe development of a virtual care platform To help Canadians navigate mental health issues. Digital tools will be designed to help users connect to mental health providers and find reliable information while reducing pressure on the health care system.

Looking at how women use available platforms and networks like Instagram can help adapt these technologies to their needs and potentially reduce gender gap.

Fanny Gravel-Patry, PH.D. Candidate and public researcher, communication studies,Concordia University

This article is reissued fromThe conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read itoriginal article.