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Mental health and social media

I have documented my own mental health on my blog extensively throughout the last few years. I suffer with anxiety but fortunately for me it is not life changing and I only have a slight disorder. Saying this, when I wake up I don't actually know whether the day will be a good or bad one. One day I will be the most care free person and the next I will worry about everything. This is difficult for me to deal with and so I can only imagine what others go through with severe anxiety disorders, depression, OCD and all the other challenging mental health issues thousands of people tackle every day.

I wanted to write about this subject matter today because I woke up to the news that Sophie Gradon, from series 2 of Love Island, had passed away. Her cause of death has not been confirmed but many of her friends on social media have implied that Sophie committed suicide. This has hit me quite hard, I do not know her personally but I absolutely loved her when she was on Love Island and she was one of the happiest people on social media. She promoted a happy life: having a loving partner, a supportive family and her business life was very successful. The shock of this news is what has got me. How can someone so happy be in so much pain? I think now is the time we really focus upon what a sham social media is.

I looked at all of Sophie's social media platforms today to see if she had written any cryptic tweets to even hint at how much pain she was in. But there were none. Every tweet and Instagram post seemed as though she was living her best life. This made me contemplate my own social media. Of course I write about the things I have been through on my blog but if you look at my Twitter and Instagram I look as though everyday of my life is perfect and happy, which of course is not the truth. I think what we should learn from this is when you are looking at others social media take it with a pinch of salt. We all know logically that social media is not a full picture of the person posting but do we ever think about what the smiling face on our screen is really thinking? If you haven;t reached out to a friend in a while do it. Check in and see how they are. Just because their social media promotes their life as a happy one does not mean they are truly happy, they may be searching for someone to talk to.

Of course I am not an expert on any of this. I do not claim to be. But reviewing Sophie's social media made me feel so sad for her, it looked like she had it all but there are so many things that social media does not show you about someone's life. My thoughts and sympathies are with Sophie's family and friends.

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