nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Instagram, gyms and mental illness

Balanadan

I find it difficult to browse instagram without thinking there are a lot of mentally ill people on there. You get the stories in the media every so often about someone who has curated the "perfect" life on instagram yet they a deeply depressed and unhappy.

There's a chain of gyms near me and they are full of people who spend hours, and I mean hours, hanging around the place taking selfies for instagram. Some of the poses they pull... :pac: Their instagram pages are almost solely selfies, posed and curated to portray themselves in a certain way. The same gym promotes supplements to the point where you'd probably be ****ting pure protein and Monster energy drinks ffs.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

razorblunt

I know a lad, he’s sound enough but his Instagram is poison. Topless workouts, in fairness he’s built but it’s not naturally gained at all. His diet is appalling judging by the other posts. Most annoying of all, is his stories, always in the car and behind the wheel whilst driving. He always has the merc logo on the steering wheel shown too. It’s an A-Class, buddy let’s just settle down.

Your Face

I left my last gym because of these types.

I usually went after work to blitz through a workout.
It got too difficult to get it done on time as theyre were always groups of these people pricking around equipment.

Church on Tuesday

Look, the sooner all this instant social media bull**** is put in the bin, the better it will be for all.

It was a grand enough novelty back in the day but's had it's time now.

nice_guy80

If you're not sweating buckets in the gym, then you're not doing it right
Not very instagrammable

Tomas81

Have you seen people set up pages for their child who is 7 months old or their dog.

Also if you call your child After a fashion designer but live in Crumlin your a grade A Arsehole.

Junkyard Tom

I use social media to mask deep-seated insecurity and inner turmoil by post pics of myself doing interesting stuff in exotic locations.

Irish Guitarist

ArchXStanton

Was only watching this earlier after someone close I think has depression and what could be the cause of it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3aIQuMWJCA

jimbobaloobob

Trigger Happy wrote: »

I must have the wrong, or right, friends as all they post is pictures of their dinner and pets.

I was thinking similar my friends don't use any of it to communicate. We search the phone book on the phone and talk

I see sheep

He's a faaag

jimbobaloobob

Someone mentioned earlier all the personal trainers that are at it now using Inst agam and other social media. Ironic thing is they are all trying to promote themselves as different. Many of them have a 'story' as to why they now do personal training and it often seems to focus around insecurities, eating disorders or mental health issues. Having lived the nightmare is not always the best route to helping others.

OldMrBrennan83

jimbobaloobob wrote: »

I was thinking similar my friends don't use any of it to communicate. We search the phone book on the phone and talk

Talking on the phone sounds hideous. Do none of you have WhatsApp?

[Deleted User]

It's self-indulgent to a degree that all would have felt to be ashamed and embarrassed to engage in 10 years ago. It fuels a culture of vanity and judging yourself and others harshly by appearance, which is a bad thing. These people KNOW that posting such pictures of themselves makes other people feel jealous/inferior (just like seeing other peoples' physique pictures would make them feel if they weren't in the top 1% of physiques) but they do it anyway because they are selfish and think "if others are going to make me feel bad, i'm going to strike back and make them feel worse". How about they be the change they want to see in the world and opt out of posting pictures of themselves on instagram? Because the reality is, nobody wants to see pictures of them standing in a gym, taking pictures of their physique that they self-absorbedly spend hours in the gym and in the kitchen cultivating. Also, these people typically eat huge quantities of meat which again illustrates their selfishness.

It's not worth putting in the effort to be ripped nowadays anyway - 15 years ago, yes, because it was actually rare and you enjoyed enormous benefits from it, but nowadays the benefits are few because of how common it is and how bombarded we all are by seeing pictures of such people on instagram. You have average guys going around with bodies that would have put 1980s bodybuilders to shame. In counterbalance to all this, in my opinion this trend is not as intense as it was about 2015-2017, when it seemed that every lad had big swollen biceps from lifting weights.

Also - they all have the same haircut, why is this?

debok

It's the ones like Roz Purcell spouting on about my body image and how she changed her life. Every picture she has then seems to be pointed slightly at her camel toe. She changed her whole life when she started going out with son of wealthy wealthy family. Wonder did that have something to do with it.

paw patrol

Deleted User wrote: »

No one ever promoted obesity though..

you should watch more of the internet , it's a big sub culture..even irish groups on insta celebrating their fatness.

Witcher wrote: »

Good lad, your medal is in the post:pac:

Some of us aren't gasping for breath when running so can do more than just focusing on not passing out...might want to work on that yourself before the Olympics:pac:

well you probably aren't working out hard enough

don't mind them lazy folk Hogan, just remember their lazy arses keep your gym open with their fees.

supermouse

ArchXStanton wrote: »

Was only watching this earlier after someone close I think has depression and what could be the cause of it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3aIQuMWJCA

This is a brilliant video - thanks very much for sharing!

threeball

Zuckerbergs legacy, Facebook and Instagram. He'll go down as one of the greats c#@ts of all time.

PowerToWait

debok wrote: »

Every picture she has then seems to be pointed slightly at her camel toe.

Jayzis, the clothes in the gym these days leave practically nothing to the imagination. It's even more apparent in the past 18 months for whatever reason.

There's an awful lot of talk of the supreme importance of self love from many of these blatant narcissists, something they're obviously not scrimping on.

NIMAN

threeball wrote: »

Zuckerbergs legacy, Facebook and Instagram. He'll go down as one of the greats c#@ts of all time.

And one of the richest.

He didn't force anyone to use his products.
I use neither. Have never used them.

Franz Von Peppercorn

These guys on Instagram may be narcissistic but that’s not usually associated with depression. It may be causing depression on those trying to keep up with the Instagram Joneses.

Mike9832

nice_guy80 wrote: »

If you're not sweating buckets in the gym, then you're not doing it right
Not very instagrammable

Don't mind seeing posts of pr lifts

200kg deadlift and leaving it all the gym etc

Hate the posing, especially the guys

Women are fine though

Wish I was born 10 years earlier

Didn't have those bodies when I was a young man ðŸ˜‚

kowloon

The gym in TCD has windows facing out onto a ****ty street. I wondered why people would want to look out onto that street. But maybe the windows were so people could look in at them.

Wibbs

supermouse wrote: »

This is a brilliant video - thanks very much for sharing!

+1000 SM. I've long been of the admittedly layman's opinion that the rise of mental illnesses like depression and anxiety can be compared in a roundabout way to the rise of type two diabetes. Like depression and anxiety some people are more genetically predisposed to diabetes, but the environment, diet, exercise triggers it in them and causes it in many more people who aren't genetically predisposed to the condition.

I would see the depression and anxiety conditions in a similar way. Our environment is causing it more and more and in more people. In more healthy environments both diabeties and depression and anxiety are significantly lower in those populations. As yer man points out in the video, our society is a machine that is near designed to cause unhappiness. And worse it's getting.

The problem being that therapies for depression and anxiety tend to paper over the cracks for many, particularly those not genetically predisposed to it. The standard take these SSRIs' with a sideorder of Xanax and come back in a month to readjust your dose is clearly not working to the degree promised and expected. The western rates of depression and anxiety and self harm reflect this. Which is the major outlier when it comes to medical therapies of any kind. When antibiotics came along dying from simple infections pretty much went away and the vast majority reached adulthood, where they didn't before. Vaccines had a similar effect. Yet antidepressants have not had this effect. Neither has "talking more about mental illnesses". Awareness hasn't particularly helped, some would argue it has increased the copycat effect and the comparison effect.

Of the people I've personally known on the current regimen they seem to get an initial recovery, but fast forward a couple of years and they're still on the up and down treadmill. Folks writing blogs and the like on the matter show very similar stories(like the chap in the video when he was younger). By not addressing the environment I would compare it to taking insulin while still eating a crappy sugar laden diet and sitting on a couch. It'll stave off some symptoms, but the condition is still there and usually progressing. Talk therapy tries to address the background more, but IMHO is coming at it from the slightly wrong direction and is woefully out of date with regard to the current environment.

I am not saying drug therapies aren't important. Not at all. They are lifesavers for many. To stretch the diabetes analogy further those folks are like those born with diabetes that would happen regardless of the environment, but those who come down with type two, which I would contend is the majority they're at best a stopgap measure and one that is increasingly less effective(studies are showing the the SSRI class of medications have become less effective over time).

TL;DR? If your life is otherwise good. You have a wide social circle, a career that engages you, are educated and respected to the level of your abilities and have a stable environment and you're still depressed/anxious, then yep meds are a good plan. If however you're life is otherwise shite. You have no social outlet, no career that engages you, are not educated and not respected to the level of your abilities and have an unstable environment, they're about as much use as a bandaid on a bullet wound. It might stem some of the flow, but you need to fix the bullet wound.

One part of this "bullet wound" would certainly be aspects of instgram and social media in general. A lot of trout pouts cover up the lack of genuine smiles.

Pac1Man

Deleted User wrote: »

Also, these people typically eat huge quantities of meat which again illustrates their selfishness.

And you were doing so well...

OldMrBrennan83

Pac1Man wrote: »

And you were doing so well...

They're the type of crackpot this new social media age has created.

threeball

NIMAN wrote: »

And one of the richest.

He didn't force anyone to use his products.
I use neither. Have never used them.

Rich yes but at the end of the day his creations have been to the detriment of humanity. People are now more self obsessed, narcissistic and generally unlikable than ever. Social networks have ironically been incredibly negative as a whole for society and that's before you get into the misery of bullying and suicides that would never have happened without things like Facebook. The sooner it's had it's day the better.

Charles Ingles

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

Humanity is on its last legs

[Deleted User]

I swim, and like to run outdoors and just don't like gym environments generally. I never set targets, I just run until I want to stop, and I swim until I want to stop. I'm not in competition with myself, I just enjoy feeling fit. Also do yoga daily because I love it.

On the rare occasion I use the gym at my place of work, the mix is about 25% young people and the rest are middle aged and older. The older people have it absolutely sussed, they're there to maintain a level of fitness and flexibility into their later years and that's their only target, then they shower and get dressed and get on with life. Some of the younger regulars would be much the same, and the Instagram aspirants are in the minority.

On my commute home is a large ground floor gym that has floor to ceiling windows, it's a whole different story with the people lined up in the window. Lots of make-up in that line up, lots of steroids, and I assume lots of Instagram accounts.

Wibbs

Charles Ingles wrote: »

Humanity is on its last legs

To be fair they're better than if they had bingo wings and beer bellies at the same age. If folks were to apply a similar level of dedication to also working out the muscle between the ears we'd be golden. The original renaissance man(and woman) idea. And to be fair some do.

Charles Ingles

Wibbs wrote: »

To be fair they're better than if they had bingo wings and beer bellies at the same age. If folks were to apply a similar level of dedication to also working out the muscle between the ears we'd be golden. The original renaissance man(and woman) idea. And to be fair some do.

Narcissism will be the downfall of humanity.
Social media is destruction, personal relationships are non existent