Does Photography Really Reduce Anxiety?

Do you ever feel the urge to make sure that you get some good pictures everywhere you go? Believe it or not, this urge is no mere coincidence. Whether it is the simple act of pulling out your smartphone and taking photos with your friends on the weekend to post on Instagram, or bringing a high end digital camera on a vacation with beautiful views, or even building a pinhole camera out of a red pepper (I witnessed the creation of this camera first-hand!), you are subconsciously satisfying your mind and reducing anxiety while doing any of these different forms of photography!

Red pepper pinhole camera - created by Huarui Zhang.

While it has become widely known that social media is addicting, this fact is often accompanied with a negative connotation. Unfortunately, many people miss that there is much more to the story. There is a major upside to the use of social media, and the desire to record your life through these platforms. When certain addictions are tamed and honed into healthy habits, they have the potential to make very positive impacts on your life.

Like social media addiction, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can have negative connotations. Many highly trained athletes embrace this though, and they use it to reduce anxiety and mentally satisfy and balance themselves to perform better (usually through maintaining superstitions). A prime example of this is Sidney Crosby, arguably one of the best players in the National Hockey League and one of the most superstitious professional athletes in the world. (I highly recommend reading this very brief article about some of the borderline crazy - but controlled - ways that Crosby utilizes superstition.)

This positive utilization seen with OCD and superstition is easy to compare to how both creating healthy habits around posting on social media and allowing the creative side of photography to connect you with yourself can be very beneficial to your life.

If all that you see about social media is negative information about how it creates flaws within our society and can be bad for mental health, then why is it still such a prevalent part of the world we live in? Why do many people constantly have the urge to use this media? Among many other reasons, the one that I specifically want to draw your attention to is that in a controlled and balanced manner, the use of social media can have therapeutic effects one's mental health. In a study done in 2018 at Lancaster University, Dr. Liz Brewster and Dr. Andrew Cox observed and recorded what participants in the study posted and how they interacted with others on a site called Blipfoto, a photo-a-day website. They found that the participants reported an improvement in their wellbeing through "self care, community interaction, and potential for reminiscence."

Bryce Evans on how photography saved his life.

Whether it impacts you in a big way or a small way, venturing into the realm of photography has a limitless potential to make your life better. In the case of Bryce Evans, a speaker at TEDx, he would not be alive today if he had not stumbled into photography as a means to communicate his emotions and connect with himself. Check out his speech to hear the story of why and how he was able to use photography as a bridge between his inner emotions and his expression of those emotions.

Tune in to my next blog to explore a few of the most fun and relaxing photography related activities and opportunities that I have experienced, and learn how they have opened up the creative side of my life and can do the same for you as well!

References:

Blipfoto. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://www.blipfoto.com/

Bombulie, J. (2019, May 28). Ex-Penguins center Joe Vitale shares tale of superstitious Sidney Crosby. Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://triblive.com/sports/ex-penguins-center-joe-vitale-shares-tale-of-superstitious-sidney-crosby/

Daily photography improves wellbeing. (2018, April 30). Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180430131759.htm

DeCoster, V. A., & Dickerson, J. (2013, December). The therapeutic use of photography in clinical social work ... Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271992434_The_Therapeutic_Use_of_Photography_in_Clinical_Social_Work_Evidence-Based_Best_Practices

Evans, B. (2015, December 10). How photography saved my life | bryce evans | tedxsfu (1277975038 943129959 TEDxTalks, Ed.). Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuJhTfxd0gY&t=817s

Griffiths, M. (2018, May 07). Addicted to social media? Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201805/addicted-social-media

Kennedy, R. S. (2011, September 6). [Clinical compass - cme] sports, psychology, and superstition. Retrieved March 29, 2021, from http://neurosciencecme.com/email/2011/090611_ckc.htm

Medicareful Living. (2020, February 27). The health benefits of photography. Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://living.medicareful.com/the-health-benefits-of-photography