We’ve all got friends who post their entire personal business on Facebook, Tweet embarrassingly emotional messages and seem to be constantly looking for attention through the medium of social media. Rather than thinking about the wellness or well-being of the person behind the messages, it’s all too easy to become irritated, and use tools on the social media to hide or block the person so that you can’t see them posting messages about themselves any more.
Before doing this, it might be worth considering whether or not your friend’s mental health could be in question. Facebook especially lends itself all too easily to being callous. We forget that the people behind the messages are human beings too, and we write them off all too easily.
In some ways, social media has driven a wedge between people rather than bringing them closer together. If someone shows signs of depression, it is often decried as ‘attention seeking’ and people are then more determined to ignore them than ever. Those who have suffered from depression often report that others steer well clear of them rather than helping them out, and that people are very nervous of things out of their preconceived idea of ‘normal’.
In truth, mental illness isn’t something that people can control. Although medicine and talk therapy (if the illness is diagnosed) can help to control the illness to a degree, it is still one of the most uncontrollable illnesses there is, and people often miss social cues or behave inappropriately, like sharing too much information or breaking down in public.
Whilst this lack of social barriers is normal for mental illness, it can lead to others thinking that you are an ‘attention seeker’, causing them to distance themselves from you. So, the next time you see an attention-seeking Facebook status and want to block the person, consider instead the fact that your friend could be mentally ill – and reaching out for some kind of help.
