The Twitter Army

It's around six months since I set up my @AnxietyTracker Twitter account.  At the time, I didn't know how to use Twitter and perceived it to be something that people used simply to pry on the lives of celebrities, which isn't something I have a vast interest in.  But I also understood that it was the best, modern way of getting something out there, out into the public domain, especially for businesses for example.

Did they ever consider the name 'Honk?'

In addition, people love talking about themselves - that's just human nature - it doesn't mean we're all self-absorbed or arrogant.  Of course we love talking about ourselves, we know ourselves better than we know anyone else. That's what we think anyway.  And Twitter, by it's very nature, has given us a platform to shout about what we're doing and what our opinions are to the whole world.

The problem for me is that anxiety has battered my self-confidence and perception that I am anything other than dull and uninteresting, a perception I still hold today.  So why on earth would I want to shout about what I'm doing, given that I also know that I'll care if other people don't care about what I'm doing.  It's just setting up a recipe for disaster - a mundane one. 

"I'm watching the #football."

0 retweets
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0 one gives a s**t

You get the idea.

So I mused about this and thought that the best thing I would be able to tweet about is mental health, my associated experiences and my blog which was already relatively well established. People genuinely may find that interesting and may get some benefit from it.  It's also a topic I know a bit about, having been through anxiety for most of my life.  I can be confident it'll be read with genuine interest by at least somebody and will, therefore, make it worth my time.  I could even tweet about the odd non-mental health related story, if I'm feeling really brave. (This hasn't happened too often).  

So I quickly learnt the basics of Twitter and found that I acquired a fair few followers very quickly, and not just followers, but the right 'sort' of followers.  In other words, those people who also have a mutual interest in mental health and, of course, experience of suffering, whether it be anxiety or another mental health issue.  You also have to follow the right people, which I've also tried to do.

And although mooted above, it then struck me that being on Twitter and talking about mental health is one of the best ways to raise awareness.  Along with promoting my blog, it could also generally contribute a minuscule amount to the existing Twitter and non-Twitter Army of people who are doing their bit to try and combat the stigma surrounding mental health.  Promoting my blog will do this anyway, because that's what this blog is all about, but my general whimsy and tweets about anything to do with mental health do one thing if nothing else - prove that I'm not frightened or embarrassed to talk about it.

And what I have also learnt since setting up my Twitter account is that there is a huge army of people using the tool who are doing the same thing - whether it be purposely like me, or inadvertently.  There are so many people who use it to express their feelings and what they are going through, to an army of people who understand.  And all of this raises the awareness of mental health and how we can stop the stigma.

It's not all positive in my experience, though.  Whilst Twitter is a great tool for raising awareness, my fear is that some people become gripped by it and almost addicted to what it can do - a bit like Facebook.  It could also become a substitute for actually verbalising (or talking, as they say in English) about mental health which still has to be the most effective way of getting the messages about mental health across - doesn't it?

I have very mixed emotions about social media and what it is doing to society, as I've expressed in previous blogs.  But in this case, the case of raising awareness of mental health and trying to remove stigma, I think it is far more positive than negative.  It's wonderful that so many people are 'coming out' about their condition, people who may not have the confidence to do so in verbal form but who do when it's in the confines of their own digital world.  OK, so it's a mask, but one that can reach more people than verbalising, potentially.  

I have a modest 137 followers on Twitter to date, but given much of my twittering is done on the train on my commute to/from work and that I always fail in taking the time to follow loads of people myself, I'm still satisfied with that.  If just one person finds my blogs or posts useful, I'm happy - it's worth continuing.  

I still think we need to activate caution when using social media generally, especially from a mental health perspective, but in my mind there is no doubt that Twitter, with it's ever-growing army, has provided a positive platform in contributing towards killing off mental health stigma.  

Best wishes
Al