In this day and age, if you aren't on social media people think you're a little weird. Everyone I know has at least two different social media profiles that they use on a daily basis. And for some people, they tend to use social media a little too much and may end up seeing things that could hurt them. This is mostly the case with people who struggle with some mental health disorders already, but I have no doubt that social media has caused mental health problems to arise in otherwise stable people just based on suggested posts for them.

Every now and then I'll catch myself spending hours on end flipping through the same four social media apps, scrolling through countless photos and videos (my screen time report is...confronting). I start to take note of how it impacts my mental health since I know I have my own struggles to care for. But the biggest thing to me isn't the amount of time we spend on these apps, because there are a lot of great aspects, it's the notion that we have to look and act a certain way to get the validation we crave.

We only think this way because that's the information with which we are presented. We are shown what society deems as the "ideal" or "perfect" body type, and we beat ourselves up for not conforming to our on-line peers expectations of us. This happens more for women than for men, but nonetheless it can still cause body image issues, which can lead to eating disorders and body dysmorphia, among other mental health issues. If it isn't obvious, this is a very toxic way to spend your time and energy.

The best way to combat this is to delete social media from your phone, at least temporarily, to give yourself a break. I know this can be a very hard thing to do but speaking from experience I know that it works. And it is necessary to do from time to time. We have to be able to recognize patterns that aren't healthy for us so that we can catch these behaviors before they begin to spiral out of control.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: mental health is just as important as physical health.