The Dark Side to Self-Care: Overconsumption, Addiction and Mental Illness
If you scroll through the explore page of any social media app, then there is a likely chance that you will be met with some sort of self-care video depicting various, and sometimes excessive, rituals and practices.
Take the trending “Self-Care Sunday” videos for example. No influencer truly believes that a Sunday afternoon cannot be complete without a bath filled with bubbles, a few bath bombs, a lengthy or over-the-top skin care routine and a platter with five different desserts that would certainly give you an intense stomach ache if you consumed them all at once.
Social media has swiftly become a place where people go to brag. Influencers want you to be jealous of their wealth and seemingly glamorous lifestyles.
It can all get a little overwhelming, consuming all this grotesque media, and suddenly you are wondering if you have made enough purchases to secure your own self-care routine. Why do influencers get to have beauty rooms with floor to ceiling shelves crammed with every scent of Tree Hut sugar scrub and you don’t?
As you can see, self-care can be preppy and fun, but it can also cause quite a lot of disturbance.
There is no joy that comes from overconsumption. Not only are people spending lots of money, but they also could be potentially wasting skincare products. Many influencers have endless drawers filled with every skincare product imaginable; however, these items likely have an expiration date. This means that they must throw out the product before you can even use it, or risk decreased quality or even skin irritation if they decide to use it after a long time.
It feels dystopian to have people, sometimes even as young as children, bragging about how much money they have spent on their beauty hauls. Middle and high schoolers are filming skin care videos where they detail all the expensive products that they use in one day.
There are definitely some impulsive, compulsive, or additive traits at play. Many people are too afraid to admit how much delight they feel swiping their credit card. Like all additions over time, it will take more and more of their input, causing them to dry out completely until there is no money left in their bank account.
This is what self-care has inevitably become: a scam. It is false advertising that promises spectacular results and beauty.
Please remember, though, that you cannot buy beauty. Happiness cannot be found within the containers of the latest skin care product. Self-care is not about purchasing unnecessary products in bulk in order to obtain the greatest glow-up of the century.
Rather, it is about taking small daily actions, such as brushing your teeth and getting enough sleep, that will therefore benefit you as a whole. No amount of beauty products, I believe, will ever compete with that.
