The topics of social media and mental health being mentioned within the same sentence is becoming commonplace. Whether we’re debating as to whether or not we should remove ourselves from Instagram due to anxiety-inducing posts or another startlingly inaccurate comment on Twitter has pushed us over the edge, we admit it: social media can be a hard place to be.

But, just like anything worth having or doing in life, it can also offer up a whole host of new insights, educative tit bits – and not forgetting, provide us all with the biggest sharing platforms that the entire world is connected to, in one place.

As someone who has thrived since starting out by using YouTube as an open space to influence the beauty world, Sam Chapman has partly grown her business through her social media following – with 790,000 followers on Instagram and 47,000 on Twitter, and counting. Chapman knows all too well that social media can provide a place for people to talk, communicate and open up. In short: it can be a safe space.

“Social media can be good for mental health because it gives people a platform to have honest conversations about problems they’re experiencing,” Chapman tells Stylist.co.uk.

“It links people with similar issues and allows them to talk openly. There is a level of anonymity though which gives people the confidence to chat through their problems in ways they might not be able to if they were having a face-to-face conversation.”

Which is why Chapman has been honest with her fan base in the past about suffering from depression and anxiety – something which she felt an innate responsibility to discuss.

“Because we have a platform we feel a sense of responsibility to talk about these things. There are a lot of people looking for that information but they can’t get it,” Chapman tells Outspoken Beauty on their latest podcast.

“When I first talked about anxiety and having depression you wouldn’t believe the number of my actual friends who emailed me privately and said ‘I’ve been struggling with this for years, I didn’t tell anyone. I felt ashamed.’”

She continued: “People are ashamed but it’s just a thing that comes and goes – or you might have it your whole life. It’s just a thing that so many people have and it’s okay to talk about it.”

And for some people, social media acts as a tool for improvement in mental stability.

“A lot of people suggest that social media might be part of the problem, and perhaps it is in some ways, but actually I think it could be part of the solution as well,” Chapman explains. “It connects us all with a voice so that we can discuss it and openly talk about it. I think that’s so important.”

But as the conversation around our mental health starts to open up, people are concerned about being too honest – especially in the workplace.

“With mental health, people don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to mention it because it might affect the jobs they get, it might affect how people talk to them. But, actually, it’s so normal.”

A report carried out by Thriving At Work last year found that around 300,000 people lose their jobs every year due to mental health.

In the words of Chapman, it’s time to talk.

You can listen to the podcast in full here.

Images: Getty / Instagram