Written by Fernanda JARDON-FERREYROLA & Fanny AMET
Anxiety disorders : from media to social networks
Too much informations make me sick!
« Constantly stressed? »
« Feeling anxious? »
« Witness or actor of a panic attack? »
At least once per day, we are passively exposed to this kind of messages. Not without consequence, it affects our perception of reality towards anxiousness. In this context, society could be led to overreact about their emotions and sensations, which may trigger changes in behaviors.
Nowadays, it seems like anxiety disorders are very topical. Through media and the Internet, it seems to be very easy for common people to have access to psychiatric diagnosis and their specific vocabulary. That’s why GPs have to deal with patients requesting treatment according to their own opinion about what they are suffering from.
We used to think that these were the worst consequences that could ever happen related with media. It was not. With the tremendous technology improvement for the last twenty years and the social medias’ consolidation (Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram,..), media became not only a symptoms’ data base but also, and more dangerously, a new source of diseases. Indeed, one of the oldest studies released by Kraut and al. (1998) concluded that the Internet use is positively related with depression and stress.
In recent years, it was found that adolescents who spend more time on new media were more likely to report mental health issues (Twenge, Joiner, Rogers & Martin, 2017). Since 2010, GPs now encounter an increase in students’ consultations seeking help for their mental health issues such as anxiety disorders and suicidal ideations (Mojtabai, Olfson & Han, 2016).
Furthermore, preliminary evidence found that preference for online communication exacerbates face-to-face avoidance (Lee & Stapinski, 2012), which can be defined as social anxiety. In turn, social anxiety was confirmed as a significant predictor of problematic internet use when controlling for depression and general anxiety.
Is this problem going to be the new scourge of the century? We are not able yet to anticipate the magnitude of the consequences of anxiety disorders related with problematic Internet use. All professionals have thus to wonder about how to balance between a proper use of the Internet and a healthy mental life.
Key words : anxiety, anxiety disorders, media, problematic Internet use, teenager.
Bibliography
Kraut, R., Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., et al. (1998). Internet paradox : a social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being. American Psychologist 53, 1017-1031.
Lee, B.W., Stapinski, L.A. (2012). Journal of Anxiety Disorders 26, 197–205
Mojtabai, R., Olfson, M. & Han, B. (2016). National trends in the prevalence and treatment of depression in adolescents and young adults. Pediatrics, 138(6).
Twenge, J.M., Joiner, T.E., Rogers, M.L. & Martin, G.L. 2018. Increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among U.S. adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time. Clinical psychological science, 6 (1) ,3-17
Vannucci, A., Flannery, K. M., & Ohannessian, C. M. (2017). Social media use and anxiety in emerging adults. Journal of affective disorders, 207, 163-166.
Words we have learned :
To trigger : déclencher
To be released by : produit par
To encounter : rencontrer
Avoidance : évitement
Scourge : fléau