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A new trend is spiraling across the social media app TikTok, and some are wondering if it’s causing an influx in anxiety in teenage girls.
Influencers who call themselves ‘Spoonies’ are posting videos of their chronic illness, like anxiety or depression creating communities of people who are struggling with the same problems.
Blogger Christine Miserdino created the ‘Spoon Theory’ back in 2003. Miserdino’s goal was positive. She was trying to explain to a friend at lunch what her life is like living with an invisible illness.
Her theory is that ‘healthy’ people have an unlimited amount of spoons, and those who call themselves ‘Spoonies’ only have a couple spoons and have be cautious on how they use them.
A spoon represents energy and for those suffering chronic illness they only have a limited amount of energy in the day and have to be careful how they use it. For the rest of the population who does not suffer from a hidden chronic disease they have an unlimited amount of energy throughout their day for various activities.
The ‘Spoonies’ trend has resurfaced since 2003 and doctors are concerned how this is affecting teenage girls mental health. Psychiatrists say these groups have created ‘victim mentalities’ among the teenage girls. As they share moments of them crying and at their lowest points they garner massive amounts of views and likes, perpetuating the need to share depressing content.
27-year-old Marybeth Marshal dropped out of college to focus on healing from fibromyalgia. She told Daily Mail, “You can get addicted to being sad, and sick, and the attention you receive. The ‘misery loves company’ thing makes you sicker.”
Dr. Katie Kompoliti, a neurologist at Rush University Medical Center, told Commonsense News, “It’s generated by anxiety in most cases, or another comorbidity, and then propagated by the ease of TikTok.”
For young girls who are growing up in an age inundated with social media it is almost impossible for them to not lose themselves in comparison unless they are grounded in the Word of God. Children are impressionable, and when they see people banding together in their illnesses and they long for community, they quickly take on those illnesses for themselves.
Prager U activist Amala Ekpunobi shared her concerns after watching videos on the app about teenage girls immersing themselves in videos of other girls who have turrets-like tics, and then developing them themselves.
“They actually had doctors saying these girls are so heavily influenced by anxiety and TikTok they are developing functional neurological disorders that are real…they are actually developing these anxiety induced tics,” Ekpunobi says.
The communities themselves aren’t inherently bad. The Bible talks about the importance of community.
Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how to spur one another to love and to good works. Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but let us exhort one another, especially as you the Day approaching.”
Young girls need Biblical community. There is peer-pressure and opportunities to fall in to sin on almost every corner for teenagers growing up in America today. With anxiety and depression rates among youth on the rise, there needs to be more communities of young people online teaching these teens how to cope according to the Bible. {eoa}
Shelby Lindsay is an assistant editor for Charisma Media.
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