Learn to Be Well: Filter

More than half of people with mental illness don't receive help for their disorders. Often, people avoid or delay seeking treatment due to concerns about being treated differently or fears of losing their jobs and livelihood. That's because stigma, prejudice and discrimination against people with mental illness is still very much a problem.

-American Psychiatric Association 

Stigma, Prejudice and Discrimination Against People with Mental Illness

Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Health

How We Can Change the Stigma Around Mental Health

Social psychologist Thomas Curran explores how the pressure to be perfect -- in our social media feeds, in school, at work -- is driving a rise in mental illness, especially among young people. 

"Part of my job with Challenge Success involves speaking with groups of parents about student well-being and engagement in learning. Each workshop begins with a question: How do you define success? Specifically, if you imagine your child at 35 years old, what are the values, characteristics, and qualities that would indicate they have a successful life? It is always a rich discussion, and reveals that most of us want the same things for our children: meaningful and productive work, an ability to support themselves, loving relationships, health, kindness, satisfaction, and contribution to their communities and world. And yet, this broad definition of success runs counter to what we most often hear when we ask kids the same question. Their typical first responses? Wealth, and status. Extrinsic markers. Somehow, we are not communicating what we say we most care about."

-Mary Hofstedt, program director at Stanford University Graduate School of Education's Challenge Success initiative 

Although success may not lead to happiness, experiencing happiness is one of the primary ways to achieve success.

-Jacquelyn Johnson, PsyD., PsychCentral

Does Success Lead to Happiness?

Psychological research offers some useful insights about the connections between money and happiness to consider before you make your next purchase.

-Sarah Gervais, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Three Psychological Principles to Consider Before You Make Your Next Purchase

Becoming a critical consumer of wellbeing information can help protect you from the effects described here. 

How to Find Credible Mental Health Advice Online

Finding Reliable Mental Health Resources Online

5 Ways to Better Mental Health Online

How to Protect Your Mental Health When Using Social Media

The effects of reading or watching a lot of negative news coverage can harm both mind and body.

-Charlotte Huff, American Psychological Association

Media overload is hurting our mental health. Here are ways to manage headline stress

The way men and women look in the media creates an unrealistic image of what we think we should look like. Only around 5 percent of society resembles the images portrayed in the media. That leaves 95 percent of people subject to feeling like they don't measure up. Many studies have been conducted that show the more time we spend viewing media, the higher the chance we'll experience low self-esteem.

-BetterHelp Editorial Team 

The Media And Body Image: How To Safeguard Your Self-Esteem

Social media use has been linked to depression, anxiety and loneliness. Recent studies suggest people who frequently use social media feel more depressed and less happy with life than those who spend more time on non-screen-related activities. 

-Christine M. Stabler, MD, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Hub

The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health

Content can be filtered, edited, and manipulated before it’s posted, which can lead to unattainable standards being broadcast to the entire world for anyone to see. Users are obsessed with instant gratification and in some instances base their worth or image off the images they see and the amount of likes they receive on their post. Among teenagers who reported suicidal thoughts, 6 percent in the U.S. traced them back to Instagram. 

-University of Utah 

Social media influencers create content for large numbers of followers around health-related content, such as fitness, nutrition, and wellbeing. Influencers often lack the expertise to give informed advice about sensitive health topics. In addition, they are often sponsored by industry players, such as junk-food companies. Consequently, they may spread misinformation and contribute to an infodemic environment on social media. 

-Georgetown University 

From ‘no more bad vibes’ to ‘be happy,’ the positivity movement has flooded social media, bringing with it all kinds of catchy quotes and phrases meant to inspire. Toxic positivity has been defined as an assumption made either by oneself or by others that, despite an individual’s emotional suffering, they should only have a positive mindset. According to Iris Mauss, Ph.D., the director of the Emotion & Emotion Regulation Lab at Berkeley (EERLAB) and an associate professor in the social and personality psychology area in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, signs of toxic positivity can include brushing off problems rather than facing them; feeling guilty about being sad, angry, or disappointed; and hiding your true feelings behind feel-good quotes that seem more socially acceptable.

-Alexis Oatman, Teen Vogue 

Why Toxic Positivity Needs to Go

A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them and affects the decisions and judgments that they make.

-Kendra Cherry, VeryWell Mind - What is Cognitive Bias? 

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