Social Media Plays a Role in Damaging One’s Mental Health, but Therapists Say News Consumption is Even Worse
1:1 Time with Friends and Family, Spending Time in Nature are Environments that Help People Heal
Grow Therapy’s Therapist Community Reveals High Levels of Anxiety, Stress, and Depression Top List of Why People Are Seeking Therapy
NEW YORK, May 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grow Therapy, a leader in helping create life-changing therapeutic connections between therapists and clients, today announced the results of a survey - The State of Mental Health in America - of its therapist community to help provide insight into the reasons people are currently seeking therapy. Grow Therapy hopes to use the findings to highlight key themes therapists are finding working with patients today, to normalize common struggles and encourage conversation starters for people to discuss with loved ones during Mental Health Awareness Month, this May.
Post-Pandemic Therapy Seekers on the Rise, Despite Initial Resistance
While the pandemic was difficult for many, 97% of therapists polled say the number of people seeking therapy for the first time has increased with 71% saying the number has increased “significantly”. However, while the number of those seeking therapy has increased, many patients have resisted seeking therapy. Fewer than 1 in 5 (18%) of therapists reported that less than 10% of their patients say they resisted seeking help through therapy for more than a year. 40% of therapists said that somewhere between 10% and 25% of their patients resisted, and 42% say that 50% or more of their patients resisted seeking help through therapy for more than a year.
Despite initial resistance to therapy, it’s Millennials who currently seem most open to therapy. When therapists were asked about the top two generations that currently make up much of their client base, 82% of therapists said Millennials, followed by Gen Z (47%) and Gen X (42%).
“We’re really reaching a turning point in society where taking care of mental help through therapy is starting to be accepted as a part of the overall healthcare we need to live happy, healthy, and productive lives,” said Jake Cooper, co-founder, and CEO of Grow Therapy. “There’s been too much resistance to therapy for too long, and it’s so encouraging to see young people approaching their mental health so willingly, and we hope to see the impact of this result in a healthier, more emotionally educated, and accepting society. Grow Therapy is on a mission to help every American gain access to the mental healthcare they need.”
It Starts with Therapy, But Healing Environments Can Help Too
Therapists know that their patients have taken an important step in seeking out therapy, but they also know that therapy isn’t the only place where healing and mental health and wellness happen. When asked about the top 2 environments that help their patients find the most healing, 73% say that spending one-on-one time with friends or family members is the most healing, followed by spending time in nature (53%). Spending time alone (22%), support groups (20%), and church (19%) rounded out the top five environments that patients say they find healing.
Social Media, The News, May Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health
Social Media - for some it’s a great way to stay in touch with friends and family, for others it’s a rabbit hole for doom-scrolling, but what do therapists think? Nearly half (47%) feel that social media is a fine line, that it can be beneficial to mental health, but that it can also be damaging. However, slightly more than half (53%) see social media as harmful to mental health, with 29% flatly saying it plays a role in damaging one’s mental health and 24% saying it does more harm than good.
While social media appears to play a role in damaging one’s mental health, more therapists believe that news consumption plays a role. Overall, 80% of therapists believe that the news (watching/listening/reading/doom-scrolling, etc.) plays a role in damaging one’s mental health, with 27% agreeing outright, and 53% saying that consuming too much news, especially if it’s bad news, can be harmful to mental health. 19% believe it’s a fine line when it comes to news consumption, that in some cases it can be beneficial. Only 1 percent believes that news consumption doesn’t harm mental health.
Anxiety, Stress & Depression and Mental Health “Danger Zone” Environments
While a variety of things may prompt someone to seek therapy, when therapists were presented with 23 different topics and asked to choose the 5 most common topics that people bring up in therapy, there were some prominent themes. An astonishing 94% of therapists identified Anxiety as the leading topic, followed by Stress (75%), Depression (65%), Trauma (42%), and Family (36%). Romantic Relationship Issues followed closely behind Family coming in at 35%.
Unfortunately, it’s not just these issues that therapy patients are struggling with, but it’s also certain environments - and it’s primarily ones we are in every day. For example, when therapists were asked what the top two types of environments that were causing the most mental distress in their patients were work (48%) and home (47%) were the top two. Other environments that rounded out the top 5 were extreme political environments (35%), social media (27%), and racist environments (13%).
Survey Methodology
Grow Therapy conducted its survey for Mental Health Awareness Month with 188 licensed therapists on the Grow Therapy network, between April 25 and May 10, 2022.
About Grow Therapy
Grow Therapy is building the most provider-centric mental health group in the US to deliver high-quality, affordable mental healthcare to everyone that needs it. Grow Therapy helps therapists easily start and grow thriving private practices, giving them the administrative and business tools, peer community support, and pipeline of referrals they need to make their lives better. As a result, clients can choose from a wide variety of therapists to not only find the one that best suits their needs, but that takes their insurance. Founded in 2020, Grow Therapy’s network includes thousands of therapists and works with major insurers including Aetna, Cigna, Optum, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Humana. Some of Grow Therapy’s key investors include SignalFire and leaders of Oscar, Nurx, Quartet, Airbnb, Blackstone, and Harvard Medical School. More information about Grow Therapy can be found at www.growtherapy.com.
