Britain's middle-aged women are becoming addicts and we have to stop the madness, says GB News star Rhiannon Jones

Researchers have found those in their 30s and 40s are more likely to report mental health problems if they regularly use social media.

In our midpoint, often post-babies, post Lockdown, we can find ourselves reassessing our careers and identities. We often end up looking to others for inspiration or guidance. Before we know it, we have become an incessant scroller. This can add to already existing feelings of dissatisfaction, inadequacy, and isolation, which in turn, unsurprisingly, can affect our mood.

Rather than enjoying and appreciating our lot, many of us find ourselves lost in the lives of friends and strangers, continuously comparing ourselves to others.

"When we derive a sense of worth based on how we are doing relative to others, we place our happiness in a variable that is completely beyond our control," Dr Tim Bono, author of When Likes Aren’t Enough.

I can pinpoint precisely when it started for me.

It followed chats with a couple of industry agents. The feedback I had received from both was that my showreel was strong and my experience vast. But it was the lack of social media pull, the absence of a large following on Instagram, that would get in the way of progressing my career.

How many does one need? Hundreds of thousands it turns out. Or so they said. Either you must be an established household name already or bring with you a whole new viewership. Followers.

But how about the diploma in broadcast journalism, the fifteen years of live TV experience, the little black book of notable interviewees, multiple languages, on-air presence? "You could try OnlyFans," one agent suggested.

For the past couple of months, I have been trying to find my ‘thing’, my social media identity, persona, passion, my pull.

What I have discovered instead is that I have been falling ever deeper into the addictive world of continuous scrolling, other people’s best lives, trends and algorithms.

Algorithms I clearly never got to grips with. And it’s no wonder. They are, after all, designed to keep us ‘on’, hook us in, tap into the subconscious. All I have achieved from my endless hours of research on how Instagram works, editing reels together, spotting the trending tunes and posing for selfies, is sadness, ingratitude, and longing for more. Of everything.

The dopamine effect of social media is astounding. If a post didn’t get traction, it made me question why. If it did get traction, I wanted more. If I didn’t get more, I questioned why. And on it went. Short bursts of elation, swiftly replaced by a sense of failure and inadequacy.

I became consumed by social media. It affected my sleep. My mood. My family. I was never truly present in anything I did. I was left with no headspace. I wasn’t the best Mum I know I can be. Decent conversations with my husband were a thing of the past.

It was he, Andy, so respected in his space of wellbeing, who suggested a social media detox. "A week," he said, "Try it."

Pressing pause on your usage, even just for one week, can lead to significant improvements to your mental health, according to researchers at the University of Bath.

They studied the effects of a seven-day break from social media and found that for some participants, this meant freeing up a full working day and significant improvements in their wellbeing, suggesting a short-term benefit.

I am certainly much happier for it. Calmer. More present. A more patient Mum. A much more engaged wife. I am myself again. And I am grateful. Grateful for everything I do have, replacing that insatiable longing for what I do not.

I am proud of who I am again, of what I have achieved, and where I am going. I now recognise that I am doing my best, juggling work in the competitive world of TV and being a mother. And that is who I am. That is my identity. And I hope that’s reflected in my posts.

Luckily, my obsession with social media was short-lived. Easily remedied but long enough to give me a brief insight into just how detrimental it can be to mental health.

I don’t mean to demonise social media, nor do I plan to come off it, for now. If used with discretion, it can have enormous benefits, and certain aspects, like it or not, are essential to my career. Though now I will be approaching it with more caution.

What I have taken from this social experiment, this much needed breath in amongst all the noise, is that life is more enjoyable when you actually live it. For succumbing to the pressure of documenting our ‘best lives’, we miss out on the full immersivity of each experience. Being present, that is where true happiness lies.

My plan is to re-enter the social media space but this time with more awareness, with the advantage of having taken a step back to observe its affect, mindful not to compare but instead to be more appreciative.

Let’s focus on our own achievements. Create our own goals. We will most likely soon realise that we are actually doing damn well. Let’s not measure our own reality against someone else’s. It is often not their reality either.

If social media is having a negative impact and affecting our mood, it is time to step away, to re-set, recalibrate. Let’s take back control of how we feel. It’s amazing how liberating, how refreshing even one week off can be.

Mainly, I will be mindful of my boys as they start to embark on their social media journey. It is inevitable. After all, technology is here to stay.I just hope to be able to learn from this brief lapse of clarity and guide them wisely.

If I have struck a chord, hit Like, Save, Share…

Actually, scrap that. How about picking up the phone to someone you think might be struggling. It’s hard to see it when you’re the one in it. Go on. After all, isn’t that what phones were invented for?