Anxiety , Trauma and Advertising ….not all good.

Advertisers are not at fault , but it’s still a problem.

A nice reader of my blogs has pointed out in the comments that my spelling could be better , I probably shouldn’t remind him that I work in a Primary School and that makes it even worse ! . I usually write these in the holidays, in a coffee shop typing between sips of hot Latte and stuffing my face full of crumbly almond croissant , with the lively buzz of other customers all around me . I try not to overhear their conversations……such as , their significant other does no housework , or their boy/girlfriend has been seen cheating on them , but it does distract me from checking my spelling …so again I’m sorry!

Advertising for me is a pain in the rear , I don’t know if its just me or this affects other Trauma or Anxiety sufferers , but this time of year , just after the holidays advertisers go into another gear . Now I’m not talking about advertising for every day products , soap for example isn’t going to offend many people ( perhaps my teenage son and his friends , but not many).

Im talking about advertising that makes you feel that you’re a failure if you don’t do or have a certain product .

Ive mentioned before that travel and me are not great friends , if I know where I’m going , the roads that I’m taking and I have a certain amount of control over the journey , for example Im driving and can choose the route then I’m fine. Sit and watch the television or a streaming service on the World Wide Wait ( WWW.) and Im bombarded with ,vacation adverts or event adverts that just remind me of how limiting my life has become . I watch with growing guilt , depression that my life is less because I haven’t been to Australia or wherever , that my family loose out as I don’t travel with them . I feel bad enough without it being flashed before my eyes every 15 minutes in-between watching The Rookie . I can’t be the only one …..can I ? , time to delve into a bit of research.

Effects of Advertising on Trauma and Anxiety…..the research .

MQ Mental Health .org , has a lovely saying , it describes advertising as “the wallpaper of our lives” ( just love that description . I was surprised at the amount of work that has been done on media causing initial trauma or distress on individuals , for example horror films , frightening images in adverts. But its not so easy to find research on the effects of advertising on those who already suffer from Trauma of Generalised Anxiety Disorder ( GAD) for example.

The advertising agency in the Uk has very strict guidelines for advertising and mental health , they state that ads should be socially responsible and should not cause widespread harm .But I cannot blame advertisers for putting videos of happy families jetting off on a bucket list holiday however bad it makes me feel . I suppose I feel a bit like an oversized person looking at those pictures of bikini clad or six pack equipped beach lovers and feeling inadequate , they shouldn’t , but try telling them that.

I followed a Reddit feed that was between PTSD sufferers who also happen to be advertising agency employees . It seems from their conversation that , Anxiety and Depression is commonplace in advertising ( comments from thedirtyprojector and also from TaftintheTub on Reddit.com ) . The latter commented that they only know a handful of art directors or copywriters that don’t have anxiety and /or depression.

This is not really getting me where I want to go though , as usual Ive gone off on a tangent , does advertising make us suffers unhappy? Im still in a coffee shop , my drink is sadly empty , So I will order another latte and try again , back in a minute ……..

The Harvard Business review in January 2020 , written by Nicole Torres quotes a paper from The University of Warwick here in the uk. Professor Andrew Oswald found a significant negative relationship , between advertising and national happiness . He should know , he looked at the satisfaction of over 900,000 citizens of 27 European countries from 1980 until 2011 . The higher a countries spending on advertising was on a given year , the lower the satisfaction of the citizens in subsequent years. Professor Oswald supported this finding by pointing out the job of advertising is to make us all feel dissatisfied , to feel that we lack something , it stirs up desires and fulfils them with a product. He points out that as humans we often don’t feel happy unless we consciously or unconsciously see how other people, are doing. This he points out is not just a materialistic issue , its involves many areas for example , Relationships , employment , safety nets and having a midlife crisis ( yep really)and more . People he says, like to feel they are keeping or surpassing up with others , that is why when everybody buys the same thing , the effect diminishes as there is only so much status to go around.

Imagine then, you start from the standpoint of Trauma or Anxiety this must amplify the effect, , it reminds me of the effect of Social Media on anxious individuals . According to the above article, a longitudinal study in 2017 (Holly b.Shakya and Nicholas A Christakis ) showed that using Facebook was associated with comprised well-being. If your anxious or suffering from Trauma , reminders course can come from any area or media , but advertising, just like Social media can be one of those sources or even triggers .

Advertising can come from other sources not just television or streaming , Stephen Stosney PhD a therapist from Darnestown Maryland stated in 2017 that ” The mobile phone is a sort of drug delivery system it delivers news and other information such as advertising” . In fact if you have trauma or anxiety and try to google around the subject , guess what targeted ads are going to find their way to you?…..

Rae Nelson wrote in April 2020 in Vox , that her mother died of cancer , she was obviously devastated . She googled about funerals , gravestones and similar and that was the start of targeted ads following her around like a naughty puppy all over the internet on whatever device she was using causing her much distress.

As you may know Im writing a book ( Im already way , way behind) called trauma shadow . I do a lot of research about Trauma and Anxiety , can you guess how many ads I get every day ? I open my laptop to be greeted with an advertisement for some anti anxiety app or web page that will cure me for only $500 …later to be contacted by the same site offering me a big discount if I buy now …last chance , the next day its the last ..last chance , the next day …the last last never again chance . For us who suffer with anxiety, we cannot expect advertisers to be aware of all our issues , I get that , but f we do not limit our own exposure to this targeted advertising its not going to help us .

Tia Dole , The Chief Clinical Operations Officer at the Trevor Project ( a suicide prevention organisation specifically for the LGBTQ community) says that targeted advertising can put people at risk. A young person who shares his computer with their family may be devastated when LGBTQ adverts pop up over a family game . Also if ads remind an individual of something they want to keep secret it can add to the feelings of shame. In a similar vein , Maria Rago of the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders ( US ) points to the affect advertising has on sufferers , it can cause an individual to be ” sucked into something that reminds them of their eating disorder , this can affect recovery”.

This is a worldwide problem, in Australia there has been a huge debate about banning personal targeted ads , currently it seems that the moves to ban them have failed , despite claims that targeted ads puts an individuals personal data at risk.

As Ive said above , there is a lot of work being done about the effects of social media on Anxiety and Trauma , especially focused on teenage children . There has been some good work on body image and its effects on mental health and the exposure to unrealistic body images through all forms of media. I cannot however find studies on the effects of advertising and its outcomes for mental health issues such as Trauma and Anxiety. There does seem on the face of it,… some likely evidence that targeted advertising may cause anxiety and privacy issues for some .

Ive been a bit dissapointed that there has not been more evidence of media avoidance by Anxiety or Trauma sufferers as a way of controlling possible triggers , perhaps this is another area we need further research into . Without evidence I guess I cannot prove what I think, and that is that I suspect advertising causes problems for some sufferers , although blame cannot be put on advertisers who already adhere to strict guidelines.

Just a quick post this one , my next is going to cover confidence and anxiety , a much bigger subject . I had better go before this coffee shop kicks me out ……..I hope my spelling was better today …..!

I hope as ever , that I find you in. good place , try not to be too hard on yourselves , if you are in a bad place , reach out to a medical specialist who has experiance in Trauma or Anxiety, that probably won’t be a guy on the internet charging you $500 for a course ! Just remember you are not alone …..