Stellah Katusabe used to live for social media. The 23-year-old resident of Najjera, Kampala, would spend a huge part of her time checking and or updating her status on facebook.
It was all good until she started receiving negative comments, often classified as cyberbullying based on gender, race or religion.
“Sometimes, I would get into arguments with people I had never met that I could barely sleep or eat. In the end, I became depressed that I stopped posting or commenting on anything on social media,” she says, adding that it got even worse when she posted something and received no comment.
“Sometimes I would see mutual friends commenting on other people’s posts and not mine and I would feel like pulling out my hair,” she says.
Katusabe, like many other young Ugandans is suffering from social media addiction, a behavioural addiction that has been found to negatively impact the mental health of phone users.
According to addictioncentre.com, “Social media addiction is characterised as being overly concerned about social media, driven but uncontrollable urged to log on to or use social media.”
One also tends to devote so much time and effort to social media that it impairs other important life areas.
This addiction is caused by dopamine, a feel-good chemical produced in the brain when one is happy, in this case upon seeing many likes of a post or picture uploaded.
“When it’s not liked, the horrible feeling will be overwhelming,” Dr Benedict Akimana, a psychiatrist at...
Read Full Story: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/magazines/healthy-living/how-depression-could-rise-from-social-media-3531362
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