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EDITOR’S NOTE

Good morning. Today’s newsletter is all about mental health. The stigma isn’t gone, but it’s weakened, and there are increasingly new ways to talk about and treat a number of mental health issues. We’ve got it all covered: social media’s moment of reckoning, AI in therapy, psychedelics, beta blockers, wearable stress detection, and more. Read on for a deep dive into the ever-evolving world of mental health treatment in 2026.

THE SOCIAL RECKONING

Social media’s Big Tobacco moment

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It’s official: brain rot from doomscrolling has replaced tooth decay from candy as the top concern for parents. Worried adults are holding social media companies’ feet to the fire as US teens’ scrolling time exceeds five hours a day, on average, and evidence mounts that apps are behind the deterioration of youth mental health.

One recent study found that 18- to 24-year-olds who reduced their social media usage to an average of half an hour a day experienced lower rates of depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Many teens don’t need adults to tell them they have a problem: In 2024, 48% of teens ages 13 to 17 said social media has a negative effect on them, up from 32% in 2022, per Pew Research Center. Even many tech CEOs say they restrict their kids’ social media usage.

But...some researchers say there’s still not enough evidence to conclude that social media causes mental health issues, noting that young people who already have poor mental wellbeing could be more prone to scrolling excessively.

Big Tech faces the music

The purveyors of the platforms known to cause the teen glass-eyed stare were dealt some courtroom defeats recently:

A California jury ordered Meta and Alphabet to pay $6 million in damages to a woman who suffered depression and anxiety while using their platforms as a teen. The jury found that the platforms were intentionally designed to hook young users.
New Mexico recently won a case against Meta, which was fined $375 million for misleading users about the risks of its platform for children and failing to protect kids from child predators on its platforms.

Legal experts say the verdicts create precedents that could lead to a cascade of lawsuits that would bite into Big Tech’s profits.

No phone, no problem

On top of their legal troubles, social media companies are now seeing their products yanked out of young users’ hands in the US. Phones are now banned in schools in 27 states, as well as in several major districts, including New York City.

Meanwhile, some countries have decided they want kids to touch grass 24/7. Australia became the first country to ban social media usage for kids under 16 last year, with Austria and Denmark preparing similar measures. Dozens of other countries are considering their own bans.

Big picture: Losing their young audience would be as painful for tech companies as the feeling of an iPad kid finding himself locked out of his device. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, and X made $11 billion selling ads that targeted kids and teens in 2022, according to an estimate by Harvard School of Public Health researchers.—SK

Therapy speak

Whether they want to or not, therapists have also had to adapt to patients using AI chatbots. According to a recent KFF poll:

About 1 in 6 adults has used AI tools for mental health information or advice.
The rate is even higher among younger adults, Black and Hispanic adults, and people who are uninsured.

After all, since Covid, experts worry that there aren’t enough qualified therapists to keep up with demand, and chatbots are cheaper and available 24/7. But Freud droids can miss a lot, like nonverbal cues and subtle mood shifts, and can also encourage unhealthy—or sometimes even unsafe—thoughts or behaviors.

Per the Washington Post, there are at least a dozen lawsuits alleging wrongful death or serious harm against OpenAI, after ChatGPT users were hospitalized or died by suicide. To stay safe, many professionals recommend using AI tools in tandem with human support.

An important reminder: “Therapy is not a legally protected term,” Vaile Wright, the senior director of the office of health care innovation at the American Psychological Association, told The Washington Post. Make sure to properly vet the products and people you’re trusting with your mental health.—BC

WAIT, WHAT?

A trauma treatment that focuses on eye movements

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EMDR—Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing—is a relatively new mainstream therapy option that was developed to help people deal with traumatic memories. Created in 1987, the core treatment is bilateral stimulation, which involves side-to-side eye movements combined with sounds and/or repeated physical touch, like tapping your shoulders. This replicates aspects of REM sleep: The therapy has been compared to the feeling of going to sleep angry at your partner and waking up and feeling better the next morning.

Some experts, however, are skeptical that the eye movements matter, arguing that positive reactions are a placebo effect. A University of Washington psychologist called EMDR’s explanations akin to “neurobabble.”—DL

☕ Mental Health Brew