ETtech in-depth: why concerns are rising over unqualified mental health advice on social media

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Instagram. For three years, the 21-year-old engineering student from Meerut had been battling a persistent headache, along with growing anxiety and creeping disinterest in life.

That day in February, as a stream of memes and filtered photos filled his phone screen, a glimmer of hope appeared for Kumar: an account, @Hemant_Mahajan18, promised to cure anxiety “permanently without medicine”. With over 12,000 followers and claims of having helped a couple of thousand people, Mahajan’s “Happy Living” programme seemed just what Kumar needed. It claimed to “cure stress/anxiety in 28 days from its roots” and assured a 100% refund if there was no improvement.

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Intrigued, Kumar scheduled an initial consultation for `245. “On the consultation call, they said my physical symptoms were due to mental problems,” recalls Kumar. They offered services at a discounted price of `27,000, down from `33,000. “The person I spoke to pressured me into borrowing money from friends and relatives, promising relief,” he alleges. The programme required him to attend hour-long group sessions in a week in which he would be taught to overcome anxiety.

Kumar never questioned the credentials of those running the programme, which they called the 3 Rs: Recognise (the symptom), Release