Mood Disorder

Mental health technology companies have become some of social media's biggest advertisers and a prime source of endorsement deals with influencers, many of whom are also professional therapists. In Mood Disorder, Holly Avella explores how digital therapeutic technologies, including popular mood-tracking apps and algorithmic social media, work to construct branded psychiatric identities and calibrate the mood of contemporary mental health discourse and practice. Through more than five years of mixed-method, qualitative research, Avella investigates what happens when media platforms are given diagnostic authority. Moving beyond critiques of mental health media effects and misinformation, Avella honors the coping functions of therapy tech while probing the moody histories of diagnostic mental health, from hysteria photos to the aestheticized meds delivered to your door. Ultimately, this book asks readers to consider if more equitable and just forms of care are possible in these spaces.