TikTok and Mental Health: How I Used Content Creation to Cope

Hello to my beautiful readers! I genuinely hope that you are doing great, and if not, I wish that you feel better as soon as a blink!

Remember in my last posts where I was talking about my depression and how it's grounding me so heavily?

Well, I'm still depressed, but now I kinda found a way to deal with it! TikTok!

Crazy, right? Who would have thought that I, Saina, would install that childish app where teenagers keep dancing? Who would have thought that TikTok and mental health could fit in the same sentence? At least that's what I was thinking about TikTok, but it wasn't like that. I think I installed it back in September just to see what it is and posted a short video of my childhood photos and recent photos of me like a slideshow. It obviously didn't get a lot of attention, but I let that be. I didn't post anything on my TikTok until a few weeks later when I posted a stupid video of me brushing my hair, and the static electricity would make my hair fly. A couple of hours later, I had 300 views! Wait, what?? Who in the world would watch that video of mine? And how were they able to see it?

So, a few days later, I posted another video, and it got 600 views! At this point, I became very interested in TikTok. I was getting views without even doing something special, so I started posting every once in a while. I was posting random videos of me doing things because I had no purpose of gaining attention; I just wanted to give it a try.

I posted cooking videos, cleaning videos, funny ones, and then one day I decided that, what the hell, why wouldn't I regularly post? I mean, I'm a private person and I don't like to share much about myself in the sense of videos, but then I told myself, what's the point of sitting there and not doing anything? What's the point of having ideas and not using them? And you should know my point behind making TikTok isn't to get famous; I just enjoy the process of content creation and seeing how it works in action.

So I kept going and posted video after video, until one day in December one of my videos went semi-viral. It was on New Year's, and we went out for the fireworks. We celebrated the new year with some friends and went to sit in a café. I randomly checked my TikTok and suddenly realized that I had received thousands of views in a matter of hours! Great start for a new year, right? :)

After that, I had two more videos go even more viral, and TikTok became a way for me to express myself. Now, how is this related to my depression?

Well, the whole reason behind my depression is overthinking. I am a big overthinker, and honestly, if you are one, you know that it is almost impossible not to overthink! So I found a shortcut: distracting myself with something until my mind could heal itself. I realized that my mind is super active and tends to think even if I try so hard to do otherwise. So, instead of fighting back, I gave it a direction to overthink that way. I wouldn't say I am 100% better, but at least I can use this trait to my benefit.

Recently, I had some of my blog viewers come and tell me they also struggle with many mental problems. If you have read my posts, you know that I have struggled and am struggling with lots of childhood and workplace traumas. But you know, we are all here to help each other. You help me feel better by reading my blogs here, and I want to help you in return to deal with your overthinking problem. Trust me, we're all in this together—I mean, us overthinkers.

So, I would suggest finding a healthy habit, something that can keep you occupied like TikTok. Actually, I think TikTok is the easiest option for you because it's so easy and accessible. It's kind of like going to therapy and paying for someone to tell you how to distract yourself but for free. Therapy is great, and talking to another person could help you figure out the root of your issue, but at the end of the day, the only person who can help you reach a point of fulfillment or happiness is you.

I'm teaching you this for free, your healing key is in your own pocket. People can help you find it or lighten up the room for you to see it yourself, but eventually, you are the only one that can take it out and use it. I'm not preaching to anybody here, I'm simply telling you that if you want to sit there and cry for help, help doesn't fall into your arms; you gotta do something for it. And trust me, when you feel better about yourself, you'll start attracting other people's attention to you. It's basically like a mountain, you struggle to go up and it takes so much effort to get to the top, but then it's all sliding until another mountain comes up a million years later.

So as I said 10,000,000 times before, bring a piece of paper and a pen, write whatever you like to do, and literally start doing it!!!

I'll post more about TikTok and how you can get good views later. So subscribe if you want to be notified of the future posts. Looking forward to hearing you found a new distraction hobby.

No excuse is accepted, respectfully, Saina. ;)