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YouTube has develop into a favourite platform for many individuals with psychological well being issues. It’s a place the place they will share their very own experiences and focus on totally different facets of dwelling with a analysis.
However how do they discuss life and their dysfunction, and is posting on YouTube useful? Researchers at NTNU and the College of Basel have now studied how 39 folks with bipolar issues painting their lives and diagnoses on YouTube.
“We wanted to investigate how the diagnosis of bipolar disorder is portrayed in personal videos on YouTube. We mainly focused on people’s own experiences and reactions to the diagnosis,” stated Affiliate Professor Lucas Bietti from the Division of Psychology at NTNU.
He’s behind a brand new examine in collaboration with senior researcher Eric Mayor from the College of Basel in Switzerland, which has been printed within the Journal of Medical Web Analysis.
An increasing number of researchers are finding out how psychological well being issues are portrayed on YouTube. Nevertheless, till now, nobody has particularly centered on how bipolar dysfunction is offered there.
Private tales
“People who talk about bipolarity on YouTube tend to share more detailed and personal stories than what is usually seen on other social media platforms,” stated Bietti.
The movies typically concentrate on remedy, particularly treatment and psychotherapy, and for essentially the most half, these are described positively.
“But many people also mention side effects and challenges in following the treatment,” added Bietti.
It could, after all, be very useful for different folks with these kind of issues when somebody talks about it overtly.
Survey outcomes
Many movies addressed challenges with funds and housing (15 movies), work and training (13 movies), and relationships and household (20 movies).
Remedy was talked about in 31 movies and psychotherapy in 23—most frequently in a constructive context.
Eight most important themes emerged:
Reactions to analysis, remedy and well being care skilled competence
Trial and error with treatment
Constructive facets of bipolar dysfunction
Impairment, stigma and disgrace
Loss and grief
Household planning and genetics
Modified id (each psychological and bodily)
Social relationships and human contact
Not solely damaging facets
Many alternative subjects come up when folks with bipolar issues focus on their scenario. On a regular basis life isn’t all the time simple, however not all the things is totally damaging.
“The majority feel that getting a bipolar diagnosis is negative, but some people are also positive about it. And some are in denial,” stated Mayor.
Some folks even cease taking their treatment or going to remedy to be able to protect an id they like. That is typically linked to manic signs.
Give attention to interpersonal relationships
Evidently, there are many challenges.
“Many people experience major emotional, social and financial consequences of the disorder, including guilt, loss and heavy strain on relationships with other people,” stated Mayor.
Relationships with others are sometimes a significant focus. Folks with bipolar issues can see different folks each as a supply of assist and as a supply of stress.
“Relationships with other people are sometimes linked to where the illness comes from, such as genetics and hereditary factors in the family,” stated Mayor.
The YouTube testimonies typically point out each stigma and self-stigma related to the dysfunction. This impacts each the folks themselves and their households.
Peer assist
The tales on YouTube are each complicated and wealthy in content material.
“Overall, our study shows that YouTube has potential as a platform for peer support and for raising awareness about mental health,” stated the researchers.
This perception will be helpful for well being professionals, researchers and in focused data campaigns. The researchers however additionally spotlight the necessity for extra research on how social media impacts folks’s consciousness of psychological well being.
Extra data:
Eric Mayor et al, A Social Media Examine of Portrayals of Bipolar Problems on YouTube: Content material and Thematic Analyses, Journal of Medical Web Analysis (2025). DOI: 10.2196/67129
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Folks with bipolar dysfunction are taking to YouTube to speak about it (2025, October 8)
retrieved 8 October 2025
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