Social media is a major aspect of our lives that can be both beneficial and harmful. As someone who struggles with their mental health, I see that social media can play a major role in how I feel and I see this with my peers as well. With 1 in 5 adults suffering from a mental illness, people need to be more aware and mindful about what they follow and see in their feeds and try to focus more on accounts that promote mental health and provide support. Instead of following useless creators that just make you feel bad about yourself and how you feel, here are 5 Instagram accounts that promote mental health and will allow for you to be more mindful about the content you consume.

With over 1 million followers, @realdepressionproject on Instagram is an amazing account to follow if you are someone who struggles with mental illness or you know someone who does. This page’s goal is to provide support to people struggling and it discusses tips and ways to help with your battle. From “15 Reasons why People Self Harm” to “Tips for Loving Someone With Anxiety” this page destigmatizes mental health and helps others understand the people in their lives’ struggles. 

Self-love and care can be extremely difficult for someone who is struggling with their mental health and being able to have a reminder to love yourself is incredibly important. @myselflovesupply posts bright colored graphics with tips for self-care and reminders to be easy on yourself. They give extremely helpful and useful ways to implement self-care into your life and having these tips in your feed can be extremely helpful to anyone looking for easy ways to give themselves or someone else the support they are looking for.

If you’re looking for advice on how to deal with and process your feelings, someone who is an expert is @lindsay_fleminglpct. She is a licensed therapist who posts content about mental health. Since she is a therapist she has useful tips and ways to deal with things like anxiety and depression but does it in a way that makes people feel supported and not embarrassed. She creates funny, relatable, and actually useful content and is sure to help anyone who struggles with any mental illness. I have found her videos extremely helpful and comforting.

Feeling like you’re not alone in your battle is something many people need to hear. @letstalkaboutmentalhealth uses brightly colored posts that discuss people’s own struggles. People send in their stories and what they are dealing with and this Instagram posts it. It creates a sense of community for anyone who follows it and allows the people who are consuming this content to feel less alone and helps them realize that what they are going through and feeling actually happens to a lot more people than they may think. 

A great account to follow if you just want to learn more about mental health and how and why people deal with it then @what.is.mental.illness is the perfect account. Through the colorful and simple graphics, this account helps destigmatize mental illness and allows for anyone to follow to learn more about what they deal with. If someone in your life struggles with things like depression or anxiety and you don’t really understand what’s going on with them and how to support them, instead of following mindless content that gives you nothing, take the time to follow this account and learn more about yourself and how you can support the ones you love.

Social media is something that most people enjoy but are unaware of its effects. So hopefully you are able to find an account that provides you with the support you need and remember to never be ashamed of your mental health journey.