YouTube videos can help people cope with mental illness

Rachel Star Withers runs a YouTube channel where she talks openly about her schizophrenia in an effort to help others cope with mental illness. Since 2008, when she first announced her diagnosis online, her videos have helped people better understand the experience of living with a psychotic disorder or mood disorder. Her 2012 video, “Ask A Schizophrenic - My Answers,” has 165,000 views.

NPR reports that Rachel Star Withers’ videos about her schizophrenia have helped others coping with the illness (photo by Nii Ofoli Yartey/Courtesy of Rachel Star Withers) NPR recently did a piece about Withers, and her story was featured in a series about mental illness by wNYC podcast Only Human. In addition to telling Withers’ story, the reporters talk to people who watch her videos.Withers says she has had hallucinations since she was a kid, but that she didn’t seek medical help until she was 20. Two years later, she announced her diagnosis on a YouTube channel where she had developed a following doing goofy stunts. While her parents and therapist were afraid of an overwhelmingly negative response, Withers wanted to be a resource for people who had just received a diagnosis and were looking up their symptoms online. She talks about schizophrenia being a lonely disease, and how the information she found on the internet was overwhelmingly negative. As she tells wNYC, “If someone else gets this diagnosed tomorrow…. if they Google it... I hope that a real person pops up and they know, yeah this isn’t the end of the world.”Withers’ intuition is actually supported by data - the CDC says that individuals with schizophrenia are most at risk during the first year after diagnosis. Having someone talk openly about their experience with the illness can be comforting and hopeful.Julia is a 22-year old from Illinois who discovered Withers’ videos after learning that she has schizophrenia. Julia explains how the videos put a name to what she was going through and made her feel less alone. “Sometimes I would just click through all of her videos and I would find a video on something I had no idea about. Like depersonalization [feeling disconnected from yourself]. And it prepared me in a way. So when it did happen to me, I was like this is just depersonalization. I just have to ride it out, and I'll be fine.”In an era when Google search functions are increasingly our first stop for health information, it isn’t far-fetched to think that YouTube videos can help people cope with mental illness like schizophrenia. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “If you have, or believe you may have, mental health problem, it can be helpful to talk about these issues with others.”Rachel Star Withers is talking about her own experience, but she is also inviting others to start a conversation. As Only Human puts it, “more and more people like Rachel are speaking openly about their mental health and challenging the stigma that comes with their diagnoses. And while Withers has to block some naysayers and internet bullies, she says the videos help create a more compassionate community.”