Cattle Country - May 2022

Tiktok not for Mental Health Advice

BY: ANGELA LOVELL

Although the stigma round mental health and wellness is weakening, it has not disappeared, and farmers and ranchers are likely among the people least comfortable talking about these issues, but are certainly not immune from mental health stresses and impacts.

And with a new generation of younger farmers taking on – or preparing to take on - the additional pressure and responsibility of the family farm from their parents, there’s more stress being heaped on top of the strains of day-to-day in farming.

These factors could perhaps, in part, explain the growing trend towards people accessing mental health advice through online social media platforms like TikTok.

“The pendulum has selectively swung in the opposite direction away from some of the very stigmatized aspects of psychiatry to things like social media, where there’s almost a celebration of some forms of mental illness,” says Winnipeg-based psychiatrist, Dr. Jessica Kreviazuk, FRCP, an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba, Max Rady College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and who has clinical roles within the adult mental health program of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. “What myself and my colleagues have been noticing is people self-diagnosing with all manner of mental health diagnoses, and then coming in and wanting them to be rubber-stamped by us.”

There are apparently a lot of ‘fad’ mental health diagnoses circulating on the internet; everything from ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) to autism spectrum diagnosis.

“What’s been interesting to observe is the people, particularly younger people, will come in and say, Tik Tok told me that I have undiagnosed ADHD,” Kreviazuk says. “We do an assessment and find out that some certainly do have it, and treating it makes a world of difference. But then there are other people who clearly don’t have it, and it’s an uphill battle to try to explain to them why they don’t have it. Maybe they have something different, like an anxiety disorder, or maybe they have nothing at all and they’re just facing life in the fast lane where we’ve all become addicted to distractions of all kinds and it’s not ADHD. So, while there’s still strong stigma on one side, on the other side people are seeking a diagnosis where it may be appropriate and where it may not be.”

The danger, of course, is that these kinds of pseudo-experts on social media can cause a lot of harm, especially to people who really do need help and support.

“It cheapens the actual lived experience of someone with mental illness because it trivializes it and says, well everyone has got this particular disorder, so what’s the big deal?” Kreviazuk says. “The big deal is that when you actually live with these disorders in a true sense, it can be impairing, life-altering and in some cases life-destroying. These are not just trivial sorts of diagnoses. For example, a child who was never diagnosed with ADHD, may have struggled markedly through school, and came to think about themselves as incompetent or incapable because of their disability. It really undermines the suffering of people who are truly diagnosed with these things and struggle with them.”

Where do you go for help?

Statistics show that mental health issues are more common than most people realize. As an example, almost one out of eight people at some point in their lifetime in Canada will meet the criteria for a mood disorder. So, where should people go to access good, sound advice and get the help and support they need if they are suffering with their mental health?

“Number one, do not consult Dr. Google,” Kreviazuk says. “There is good information online but most people don’t know how to navigate to it or they don’t know if they’ve landed on good information or poor information. Why should they? They don’t have a medical background. People can’t be blamed for falling into traps of poor information online, so, I think the best advice is, as much as possible; stay off Google if you’re at the point of still trying to figure out what may be going on with you.”

The best place to start, says Kreviazuk is with your own family doctor.

“Connecting with your family doctor is always the best way in, and 50 per cent of what family physicians see is mental health-related,” she says. “Your family doctor is well trained in diagnosing and treating mental health diagnoses so, that’s going to be a reliable starting point.”

But people also need their loved ones, their support networks and their communities to help them overcome mental health struggles. We all know instinctively when something is not quite right with someone we care about, and willfully ignoring the situation won’t make it any better for that person or your own anxiety. Although it’s often difficult to approach a loved one that you think might be having some mental health struggles, if you broach the subject, in many cases, that person will welcome the concern.

“My advice to people is, just be forthright with your questions, don’t dance around, just be straightforward,” Kreviazuk says. “Asking someone, for example, about their mental health if they are struggling is usually received with some relief by the person because they’re desperate in some sense to find someone who’s willing to connect with them, listen, or hear them. They will often be thankful for someone reaching out to them. So, just ask directly, how have you been doing lately? Is there anything I can do to help you out; it looks like you might be having a hard time? Use straightforward, simple language.”

One thing many people are afraid about is interfering in a way that might push someone over the edge, especially if they are suicidal. Kreviazuk emphasizes that is not the case.

“Asking someone if they’re suicidal directly, will not introduce the idea of suicide to a person who is struggling with let’s say depression or severe anxiety,” Kreviazuk says. “It does not make things worse. People are worried about planting suicidal thoughts in their head, but the truth is that it’s not the case; very likely they’ve already thought about it so you’re not going to introduce anything to them that they haven’t already thought about.”

In fact, talking about it, it puts it on the table as something that can be discussed, she adds.

“There’s not going to be judgment about it; it’s just part of the open discussion,” she says.“It can come as a great relief to someone to say oh, someone is willing to be able to tolerate the amount of distress that I’m feeling. So, it’s actually a really powerful intervention. It doesn’t mean you go around asking everyone, are you suicidal? It can be judiciously asked of someone who you truly care about and have their best interests in mind. You’re not going to plant the idea of suicide in their mind, they’ve already thought about it, and you may actually end up saving their life, so it’s a very important thing to be able to talk frankly about.” Battling our own unconscious bias And those who are struggling with mental wellness or illness need to be reassured that it’s not a character flaw or some sign of weakness or incompetence.

“That idea may seem outdated but unconscious bias can still be there,” Kreviazuk says. “If I’m a farmer or a rancher and admit that I’ve got depression or I’m super anxious, I am probably worried that just tells people that I’m weak, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. There’s nothing in any of the literature or research that correlates character weakness or pathology with depression or anxiety, there’s absolutely no basis for that but that’s still something that I think is quite prevalent.”

It’s also a truth, that’s worth reminding ourselves, that nobody can cure mental health issues or mental illness in isolation.

“Although time heals a lot of wounds, time and isolation will not necessarily be a helpful recipe for recovering from depression or severe anxiety,” Kreviazuk says. “Being in a community, and being connected to people who care about us and doing things that are helpful for our mental health, that’s how we move forward. A lot of times people will say, if I just ignore this, if I don’t tell anyone I’m sure it will go away or get better, and that kind of avoidance strategy just amplifies the symptoms over time.”

Suspicion of treatments, based on horror stories about barbaric treatments of yesteryear.

“Psychiatric treatment has come a long way. Treatments are modern, effective, safe, and commonly prescribed,” Kreviazuk says. “We’ve got good treatments that get people well relatively quickly. Most people who have recovered from depression will tell you the treatments have been very opposite to what’s portrayed in Hollywood, especially from the 60s and 70s. Those kinds of images persist in people’s brains, and people think, if that’s what getting better means then I’ll just stay sick. Well, we’re not there anymore.”

What is TIKTOK?

TikTok is a social media app centered around short videos. Many people think of it as a bite-size version of YouTube, with videos ranging between five and 120 seconds in length.

More than 160 million hours of video are watched on TikTok in any given minute of the day.

Of the more than 884 million people who are active on TikTok, 57% are female, while 43% are male.

The majority of the TikTok audience is Gen Z, with 42% of the audience aged 18 to 24 years old. (Source: https:// blog.hootsuite.com/what-is-tiktok/)

Dr. Jessica Kreviazuk