Research Suggests Social Media Is Influencing Teens To Adopt Mental Illness Identities

Researchers have examined the troubling trend of teens self-diagnosing mental illness through social media. A new paper published earlier this month in Comprehensive Psychiatry proposed that “social contagion” through prolonged social media use can explain why some teens, mostly adolescent females, self-diagnose their purported rare mental illnesses and personality disorders online. “We believe there is an urgent need for focused empirical research investigation into this concerning phenomenon that is related to the broader resear …