Thirty-Second Therapy Sessions
Should mental health influencers on TikTok and IG be the ones carrying us through our mental illnesses?
Scrolling through Instagram feels like drive-thru therapy.
Professional therapists and wanna-be counselors flood Instagram and TikTok to give us their latest trauma-informed, evidence-based advice (even if it contradicts the other influencer who is also giving trauma-informed and evidence-based advice). They will diagnose your latest struggles; watch them make a fancy coffee while they list off various symptoms you may be experiencing. One of these videos from a viral TikTok therapist recommended that lonely, single women who aren’t ready for a healthy relationship should find a friend who might have sex with them with “no strings attached” if they are feeling the need for intimacy.
The Cut recently ran an article discussing this new phenomenon of therapists becoming influencers on TikTok. Many are leaving their private practices and clinics to become full-time influencers instead—more profit for less work. Or so it seemed. Some are already feeling the drain of working as an influencer:
“It’s exhausting. There’s burnout. It’s a gross place to be,” [Jeff Guenther] says, pointing to the endless demands of the algorithm, hate comments, and the bizarre parasocial relationships that form among audiences who feel that because they watch his content they have direct access to him. “I want to get out of here because Daddy Algorithm is my boss and I get a performance review every single day based on an algorithm that’s mysterious and doesn’t make any sense.”1
Perhaps this isn’t the way we were created to function?
Therapists aren’t the only ones affected by this new way of therapy. Dr. Thea Gallagher reminds us that “the wrong information about how to handle these conditions can damage more people.”2 One psychologist, who is well-known for giving therapeutic advice on TikTok, says many influencers are unqualified yet advising their followers under the guise of self-made yet official-sounding titles.3 Another psychotherapist shares his concerns, particularly around people self-diagnosing themselves when they don’t have the entire picture:
It’s very similar to self-diagnosing yourself with a physical condition and not going to a doctor for help, particularly if the diagnosis is wrong, because it could lead to a plethora of issues—and even fatal complications—if someone is watching videos [that don’t match] what’s going on in their specific lives or how to help them.4
While the rise of therapy culture on social media has helped lower the stigmas surrounding mental health conditions, it has also caused many people experiencing normal issues that come with living in a fallen world to diagnose themselves with mental illnesses. Normal behaviours are pathologized as abnormal, and while perhaps they may be true for someone with a mental health condition such as anxiety, depression, or ADHD, they can also be normal for people without those conditions.
As believers, we know that wisdom comes not in isolation while scrolling social media but through local community. “Where there is no guidance, a people falls,” says the wise man of Proverbs, “but in an abundance of counselors there is safety” (Prov. 11:14 ESV). The Preacher of Ecclesiastes wrote, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecc. 4:9–12).
If the COVID-19 lockdowns taught us anything, it’s that we can’t navigate a world filled with suffering and mental anguish on our own, or with an influencer through a glass screen speaking to millions. We need one another, with our eyes not just looking at a camera but into another’s eyes, to lift us when we fall from the battering of mental illness. TikTok and Instagram therapy aren’t enough. For some, it may be the starting point where they find the bravery to speak up about their inner turmoil, but it can’t be where we remain.
To survive the briars of mental illness requires people who know us, the particulars of our lives, and the many inflections and nuances that make up who we are to speak truth and encouragement to us. It takes arms holding us to remind us that we are safe and loved, and hands baking us food or folding our laundry when our nervous system cannot withstand another moment longer without a break.
Mental illness also requires professionals who not only have studied the field for many years and are held accountable to an organization but who also have spent time understanding the complexities of you and your situation to best diagnose and formulate a care plan for you. There’s a reason we don’t have a simple twelve-step plan and single drug for each mental illness. It requires the patient wisdom of a professional who knows you—not someone behind a ring light with an aesthetically pleasing B-roll telling you generic information—to receive true relief for your mental health.
Let’s not be the one who falls alone or allow someone we love to fall alone. Let’s be there, ready to catch them, and be a part of that triple-braided cord that cannot be broken.
Rebecca Jennings, “When TikTok Therapy Is More Lucrative Than Seeing Clients,” The Cut, May 17, 2024, accessed June 15, 2024, https://www.thecut.com/article/tiktok-therapy-money.html.
Jennifer Tzeses, “TikTok Therapy: What Happens When Mental Health Struggles Go Viral?: TikTok videos are helping to normalize anxiety, depression, and OCD but when is that NOT okay? Two experts weigh in.,” Health Central, September 10, 2020, accessed June 15, 2024, https://www.healthcentral.com/condition/anxiety/tik-tok-therapy-for-anxiety.
Michele Theil, “Therapy TikToks Are Spiking in Popularity – but Are They Helpful, or Harmful?: More than half of adults say that their mental health has gotten worse during lockdown. But are these clips the answer?,” Women’s Health, April 14, 2021, accessed June 15, 2024, https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/health/mental-health/a36105224/mental-health-tiktoks/.
Theil, “Therapy TikToks Are Spiking in Popularity – but Are They Helpful, or Harmful?: More than Half of Adults Say That Their Mental Health Has Gotten Worse during Lockdown. But Are These Clips the Answer?”
No, you don't have autism, you are probably just awkward and not everyone you hate in your life is a narcissist.
So, so good. We are meant to live in a real live in-person community!