So-called mental health ‘gurus’ offering advice on social media are “doing more harm than good", according to a leading psychotherapist and author.

What Your Teen is Trying to Tell You Author Stella O’Malley is warning that mental health has become a “commodity” online – with content creators offering poor advice to vulnerable people in order to boost their own image.

“I was looking at one survey which showed that only 9% of TikTok mental health gurus, for want of a better word, are actually qualified in mental health,” she told Newstalk Breakfast. 

Ms O’Malley said people online will give advice such as 'go and do yoga' and "do what feels good”. 

She said the advice these people offer can seem harmless and “benign”, but there’s a much more “insidious” aspect to it.

“It simplifies the problem,” she said. 

“In my clinical work I've met these teenagers where they're thinking, ‘This is all seems a bit of fun for everyone else, but for me, it’s hard – I'm not having mental health the same way they’re having mental health’,” she said. 

“It’s something light and benign for TikTok, while people who are having quite serious upsets feel even more lonely and isolated because it’s not simple to them. 

'They think they've cracked depression'

Ms O'Malley said these people’s behaviour online can be explained by the Dunning Kruger Effect. 

“Basically, the less you know about something, the more likely you'll think you're an expert,” she said. 

“Somebody who thinks that they've cracked depression because they had depression and what worked for them was yoga, they can go out really exuberantly on TikTok and tell people what works. 

“But one person's solution isn't everybody else's solution, and that simplistic attitude is really alienating.” 

Psychologist taking notes during psychotherapy session. Image: tommaso altamura / Alamy Stock Photo

Ms O’Malley thinks people have co-opted mental health discussions for their own benefit rather than to help others. 

“Mental Health has become a commodity,” she said. "[Clinical psychologist] Tony Bates said it.

“It's a common phrase that people use, it gives you immediate kind of access to people sympathising with you, gives you an identity. 

“People who are experiencing clinical mental health challenges now have no place to go because they’re in with everyone else,” she said

She urged anyone with clinical mental health issues to “take yourself seriously”. 

“Try and stay away from people who are simplifying things,” she said. 

“Gravitate towards people who complexify the situation, because that's probably the more likely thing that will resonate with.”