In honor of World Mental Health Day, celebs share their personal stories and strategies for navigating the digital landscape, impact of social media on mental well-being, highlighting the importance of balance and self-care in a connected world. Here’s what they say:
Tahir Raj Bhasin
Social media can be a positive influence on your mental health because there are handles that share stimulating content about art, personal development, philosophy and healthy mind sets. On the flip side, there’s a constant barrage of highlight reels where everyone seems to be posting about the best moments in their life that are edited to look picture perfect. It’s a collective projected lie. Hence, your mental health is of utmost priority to not let it affect you. I regularly do a social media detox with the objective of having a wider attention span and being more present in my own life. I regularly take breaks from social media and do a ‘social media cleanse’. What prompts this decision is what excessive time online does to your attention span, self image and mental health. After a few days off, I find I’m more at ease, more present and over all happier.
Sanjana Sanghi
Social media impacts our mental health in so many ways that sometimes we don’t even understand. In the extensive work in my journey of youth advocacy, we’ve been dwelling deep into this matter. I often compare it with my own personal experience too and the one thing that stands out is that for a generation like mine, that spent childhood without it and were introduced to social media in our teens. In the long run, nothing is more important that prioritising our mental and physical health. Knowing when to pause is extremely important and I’m only still just trying to imbibe that. There aren’t any specific strategies, however I’ve developed my own rules over time. Unless the day absolutely demands it, I make sure to not use my phone for at least 45 minutes after waking up. I take mini breaks all the time and it’s important for all of us to prioritise our mental health.
Adah Sharma
Doom scrolling is the term, and sometimes when I don’t realise hours have passed watching some random videos. I usually don’t feel too good after that, because I’m shallow breathing and sitting in one position without moving so my body feels stiff. That’s the negative side. But sometimes, when I’m in a terrible mood and I watch some animal videos on social media, I do see an improvement in my mental state. I don’t have any strategy, but I don’t allow social media validation to affect my mood in good or bad ways as much as possible. Mental health is everything. Without my mind being peaceful, I can’t function. I deteriorate physically also, when my mind is under stress. I don’t keep my phone when I’m on set otherwise I get distracted easily.
Also Read: World Mental Health Day | Imran Khan shares his struggle with depression, power of therapy
Akshay Oberoi
For me, social media affects my mind when I open Instagram randomly and I get to know that a film I wanted has been given to another actor. That’s constant and it happens all the time. It gets very triggering for my mental peace. I try to not open it all the time due to this reason mainly. It is extraordinarily important to prioritise your mental health, especially for an actor. Your mental health is everything. You have to get into the skin of another person. I avoid opening the app as it can be very addictive. The human brain is designed to feed off such stuff, but we have to fight that.
Tahira Kashyap
Prioritising mental health is crucial, especially in the age of social media. If you’re not in a space to handle trolls or negative feedback, it’s okay to log out and take as much time as you need to heal. Logging out won’t stop the trolling when you return, but it will give you the mental clarity to deal with it. One strategy I use is setting a timer—30 minutes a day on Instagram. Even if I have 10 minutes left, I close the app. It helps me stay grounded. The pressure to constantly prove myself got to me. I’d catch myself thinking, ‘I haven’t posted in a week, I need to post three things.’ And then it’d be two weeks without a single post, and I’d feel the panic. I wouldn’t call it social media stress, though. It was my mental state. If you’re in a good mindset, everything feels like encouragement. But if you’re feeling low, it feels like pressure.
Shashank Arora
Social media is a great way to raise awareness on social issues. To unite people from around the world and to make friends. Though, problems arise with excessive use, which can impact your mental well-being There is also an element of disconnect with reality which leads to poor mental health. I’m not proactive on social media, but I can understand it provides a massive platform for story tellers from all walks of life and is providing a lot of people with a livelihood. I would still advise people to take regular breaks from social media and prioritise outdoor activities over looking at a screen to keep their mental health aligned with their goals.