Media creates a platform for people to share experiences with generalized anxiety disorder. One of the main reasons people research health on the internet, is to learn how to deal with the emotional side of the health issue. Many people use cyber social support to cope with health diagnoses. However, the media has also led to public stigma with mental illness and may even prevent people from getting proper treatment. The YouTube videos are analyzed in the study to understand the information shared in the most popular videos focused on GAD. Health professionals are learning how media influences patients with GAD, and how they can better assist patients knowing the influence media and the information on the internet may have over them. The objective of this research was to break down and analyze the content of YouTube videos pertaining to General Anxiety Disorder in 2016. The findings resulted in an analysis of the 95 most popular YouTube videos about GAD, “…which had been collectively viewed 37,044,555 times.” (MacLean et al., 2017).
The authors used a method using two coders to review a set of videos relating to the search phrase, “generalized anxiety disorder”. One coder analyzed all videos in English with at least 50,000 views, while the other coder analyzed a random sample-set of videos. Using a fact sheet from the National Institute of Mental Health, the coders were able to categorize these videos and form statistics based off of their sample analysis’. (MacLean et al., 2017). For example, “65% of these videos were uploaded by consumers and 56% were about a personal experience.” Focusing more on the videos that specifically mentioned generalized anxiety disorder, “The most common symptoms mentioned were worry or panic (72%), social anxiety (46%) and panic attacks (44%)”.1 Though the research goes more in-depth with detail, these are just a few of the statistics pulled from two categories.
According to the article, the search returned 95 videos with at least 50,000 views. The cumulative view count for all videos was over 37 million. 7% of the videos featured a celebrity, which relates back to Health Blog #3 where we focused on popular news media and how anxiety disorders are becoming commercialized partly due to our society’s obsession with celebrities. The study found that videos did not vary significantly in recent or overall popularity based on whether they were uploaded by consumers versus professionals, or whether they focused on a personal experience. There were 37 videos that specifically mentioned ‘Generalized Anxiety Disorder.’
In Health Blog #1, we touched on the different treatments for Generalized Anxiety Disorder, such as medication and psychotherapy, and how GAD is caused by many different factors, such as genetics, trauma, environmental factors, and brain chemistry. In the research study, the authors found that many videos mentioned at least one treatment (63%), most commonly self-help or support groups (32%), medications (27%), or cognitive behavioral therapy (20%). Additionally, only 26% of the videos mentioned any causes of anxiety, including trauma (16%) or genetics (13%).
The authors concluded their study by discussing how they hope that these results can “guide health professionals in understanding what messages are being shared in the most popular videos on YouTube.” They believe that this could help professionals to better assist their patients, since these patients may be directly viewing these videos online or hearing about them through their peers or other sources.
Source Cited
1 MacLean, S. A., Basch, C. H., Reeves, R., & Basch, C. E. (2017). Portrayal of generalized anxiety disorder in YouTubeTM videos. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 63(8), 792–795. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764017728967
DO YOU HAVE ANXIETY? 