Young people may temporarily withdraw from social media use on the day they self-harm

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London, in partnership with YoungMinds, has examined the image-posting habits on social media of young people who self-harm. The study found that young people temporarily withdraw from posting images on the day they self-harm.

The research, published in BMJ Open, highlights a nuanced relationship between young people and their social media use before and after episodes of self-injury, showing that expressions of distress are often mixed with broader themes of support for wellbeing and connection with other users across varied content, including mental health and humour.

Self-harm among young people is rising, particularly those with mental health difficulties, and is linked to a greater risk of suicide. While research has suggested that young people may share or engage with harmful content online that reinforces self-harm, other studies report that social media can provide opportunities for peer support and help promote recovery.

Young people are increasingly interacting on social media through image-sharing, and this is the first real-world study to analyse what they post during periods of self-harm.

Bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives and lived experience, this study aimed to explore how young people express themselves on social media through the images they post during episodes of self-harm, and whether this changes from the days leading up to an event to the days that follow.

The analysis focused on a sub-sample of 20 young people aged 13-25 from the 3S-YP study who had actively engaged with self-harming behaviours during the 6-month follow up period and who provided access to their social media data. Image-posting behaviour was examined across a 14-day window around both self-reported and clinically recorded self-harm episodes.

No explicit self-harm images were identified, and none of the content endorsed or idealised self-harm. Only a small number of images contained textual references to self-harm or suicidality, and these primarily encouraged help-seeking. Importantly, the young people posted fewer images on the day they self-harmed, and there was evidence of masking and attempts to downplay or distract from distress both before and after an event. These findings may reflect concerns among young people about being stigmatised or of posting content that triggers others but also increased moderation by social media companies.

Dr Amanda Bye, King's Maudsley Partnership Translational Research Fellow and the study's first author said,"Although young people in this study were actively experiencing self-harm, their image posts showed no obvious signs of declining mental wellbeing. Rather, they reflected diverse content with subtle changes and signs of temporary digital withdrawal on the day of an event. This highlights the need for future risk detection approaches that look beyond explicit content and consider more indirect indicators of distress"

The Youth Participation Team at YoungMinds, said: "This research was incredibly meaningful. It has given our youth advisors a genuine opportunity to shape research through lived experience and to explore the complex ways social media, wellbeing and self-expression intersect in their lives. The project not only amplified young people's voices but also helped them feel valued as contributors to research that could support and inform better understanding and care for others."

This research was jointly funded by the Medical Research Council and Medical Research Foundation. It was also supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Medical Research Council, Medical Research Foundation, NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

Visual content and thematic analyses of images shared on social media before and after episodes of self-harm in a UK clinical youth sample (DOI 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-103456) (Bye, Dutta et al) was published in BMJ Open.

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