How to make Instagram work for you and your mental health
This five step guide will help you reset your relationship with the app you (probably) click on the most.
If Instagram is making you feel a bit sht, we need to change that.
A few weeks ago I was chatting away to somebody who I’ve known for a long time, and she mentioned in passing how much Instagram was getting her down.
I pressed her as to why (kindly of course, not the “against the wall” Daniel Craig kind haha). The thing about Instagram… it all feels really isolating when it’s not quite going to plan. We create on our own, post on our own, scroll away for hours on our own, so if you’re feeling down about Instagram at the moment, I’ve got you. (Even by reading this, you’re not on your own).
These seem to be the three most common reasons why Instagram can feel so bloody overwhelming:
When reach and engagement are low for long periods of time, it can feel like a betrayal - it feels like what we’re doing isn’t good enough.
We all get a weird niggling feeling when we’ve been hanging around on our screens for too long, looking at something that doesn’t serve us anymore. (Those 15 minute scrolls turn into an hour before we know it)
You keep seeing people pop up on your screens that you don’t really want to see.
I’ve experienced all of these (and boy don’t they make you feel like a bag of squirrel sht) - I have anxiety and although it doesn’t effect my everyday life, smaller things trigger it out the blue. The biggest part of solving a problem is cracking down on what the problem even is, so let’s chat about it.
Growth pains
On average, we spend two hours and 30 minutes a day on social media. Yes, a bloody day.
Without even realising our ghostly “ten years younger” selves - the ones who opened our accounts in 2011-2014, are controlling the way we consume content for hours and hours a week YEARS later. I wouldn’t trust that girl to look after a ruddy goldfish, let alone my mental health haha (I kid, I kid. I’ve always been trusthworthy *flicks hair dramatically*)
What I’d do:
Take note every time you feel a bit gross on social media. As soon as you can begin to notice a pattern, you can unfollow or mute the accounts that have that impact on you.
You can also “restrict” certain topics popping up on your Instagram feed. This Reel talks you through how you can tidy up your Reels feed using Restrict.
Talk to somebody you trust. Let them know you’re feeling this way, and you’ll realise how normal it is. (That’s probably what I’m doing in this photo tbh. “Instagram can jog on at the moment” - I say)
If you’re not sure whether you should be muting people you like in real life, your Auntie’s dog’s cousin twice removed or “that girl that helped me once” - DO IT. They’ll never know and your mental health is way more important.
And now, we go into reset mode - follow this five step plan
Every time I feel like Instagram has a chokehold on me, I do this:
Have a spring clean
Cinderella the sht out of your follower list. I mean it.
I’d be savage with your follower list twice a year - unfollow anybody who doesn’t make you feel good and mute anybody who you want to put on pause for now. I find this one thousand times easier on Instagram.com - I open up a few tabs at once and it’s a 10 minute job, but what does it mean? A happy, more spritely Laura haha.
If reach is low and it’s getting you down, don’t look
Turn off your like count and it’ll take away that “comparison thing” you’re doing - with yourself and with others (here’s how you do that). Don’t torture yourself and look at your follower count and be strict with the way you use Instagram.
Question - what makes you happy?
Now, we’ve got rid of the riff raff (sorry riff raff) we want to add sunshine, rainbows and anything that’s going to help you create a happy home feed:
Do you enjoy travelling? Books? Art?
Cat videos? (Erm, who doesn’t? Haha)
Think about what you care about and want to see more of and actively go looking for that content. (Everytime I feel a bit flat with Instagram, I do this. It really helps). Injecting a new lease of life into your Instagram feed will give you a boost, that “same old sht” is no longer same old, or sht!
I also shared a Reel here with a step by step guide which will help you find more great accounts. It’s a dream.
Travelling always makes me happy, so you can imagine the accounts I start following when I need a boost!
Take a social media detox
Imagine Instagram is a job and take leave from your feed.
I make sure I take at least a few weeks off a year and I have one day off every weekend (I don’t go on there, at all) and that for me, works. Everybody is different though and if you’re spending 7 days a week on Instagram, it’s going to take its toll. It’d be like watching three episodes of the same TV series every day for infinity (and beyond).
During this time, I also reset myself. I spend more time on Headspace. I go for longer walks, listen to the music I love, prioritise sleep and try and drink more water (this is the one that’s throwing me right now!)
And when you come back, things need to change
If you fall back into the same routine, little will change in the long time.
If you’ve spring cleaned your account and added positive new faces to your feed, the final step is to change your routine. Would a day off Instagram a week help you too? Would a cut off time in the evenings help your Instagram-life balance? It takes time to actually get this to work (it probably took me a year of actually trying to take off Instagram one day a week. Now, I don’t even think twice) but when it does, it’ll mean this Instagram-burnout so many of us feel is less likely to happen.
I follow this everytime Instagram starts getting under my skin. I hope you’re doing OK and if Instagram does start to get too much, your mental health has to come first and never feel guilty for stepping away. Your health is way more important. Sending you all my love.
Please look after yourself, my lovely pals. The NHS in the UK provides free mental health resources to UK nationals (and the Samaritans are an amazing charity).