Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other modes of social media tend to be platforms filled with boasting, personal accomplishments, and self-promotion. Scrolling down your newsfeed, you’re likely to see ecstatic announcements of engagements, smiling faces of people who have tons of friends, and public displays of popularity and seemingly perfect lives. Rarely is social media used to expose something deeper, and often much more real: the mental illnesses or difficulties that lie underneath the happier depictions of life.

But that’s what #MyDepressionLooksLike and #MyAnxietyLooksLike aims to change. The mental health campaign is bringing people together to share their experiences of depression and anxiety, and helping people feel less alone — especially young people who spend a lot of time on social media. The Internet can be a source of stress, cyberbullying, and low self-esteem, but it can also be used to raise awareness.

“For the most part the message, my message to teens [in treatment] is you’re not alone,” psychologist Mary Alvord told ABC News. “I think social media platforms, while they can certainly be used in a negative way, they also have the potential to really help.” Click on the slideshow to read the tweets of people participating in the campaign.

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Depression manifests itself in a variety of ways, depending on the individual; it can cause exhaustion, isolation, and even physical illness. Pixabay, public domain