Do you think social media (Instagram specifically) can be harmful when in a crisis or in a period of time where OCD is particularly strong and present? I deleted Instagram from my phone because it felt like it implied exposure to too many triggers.

Has anyone deleted social media because of triggering things? I find it helps as a distraction when I am anxious but then it can be extremely triggering when people talk about being sick or a news article talks about an illness being spread.

There are so many posts on here now that it’s become quite overwhelming. Some days I can use the app appropriately and get actually helpful information out of it or attempt to offer insight to people struggling. However, lately I’ve found I’ve been using it as a bit of a compulsion to see other people struggling like me to “reassure” myself it’s OCD. But I’ve also been triggered by a lot of people offering others really bad advice that isn’t good for OCD. There are way too many reassurance seeking posts (I know it’s hard, I’ve been guilty of it too). I think I’m going to take a break from the app. My advice to you, stop seeking constant reassurance. Stop obsessively reading stuff related to your intrusive thoughts/worries.

Has anybody else been exposed to harmful content online? Like, as a child, being online I came across a lot of gross, graphic content. In middle school, I remember my best friend showing me a really messed up video and we would “laugh” at it because it was so “crazy”. I look back and realize we didn’t really fully grasp what we were watching. I’m so scared for gen alpha because when I was a kid online I was seeing a lot of messed up content on twitter and other apps and I didn’t have the tools to understand what was happening. Like not too long ago back in 2020 a man committed suicide on camera and I saw so many teenagers and children asking for the link to watch the video, and then people replying back to them “you don’t actually want to watch this, don’t be stupid” & etc. I’ve also seen a lot of people from my generation (gen z) talk about how they’ve seen gore amongst other things simply being a child on the internet. My unhealthy relationship to the internet has really traumatized me and it feeds into my OCD daily. I’m super over protective of any kids who are online and I make sure to set parental locks & stuff. I’ve been online since I was like 7 and I’ve seen way too much. People would post crazy shit & be laughing at it and stuff and now that I look back I realize none of that shit was normal but I was being exposed to it so much that it kind of became just a trending “internet spectacle” amongst teenagers specifically. I wish I was being protected as a child but a lot of kids have parents who don’t give af about them and I was one of them lmfaoo and I was just being exposed to hella harmful content and thought it was normal up until I reached like 16. A lot of people still act like it’s normal. Like I’ve seen a popular ig baddie post on her story that she goes on gore websites to watch real autopsy’s (and that’s not even the worst I’ve seen people talk about). It’s really scary and I think my generation (gen z) is the first to face this generational and cultural shift in the way that children are being raised because we were the first generation of children to have 24/7 access to the internet. Anybody else relate and does it also affect your OCD?