Today’s teens are constantly glued their screens. We snap, tweet, post, count our likes and then post some more. But these posts can have some nasty side effects.

Royal Society for Public Health reported Instagram as the most damaging social media of all. The survey listed 14 health and wellness related issues that accompany the app including anxiety, depression, body image issues and bullying. Unfortunately, I began to notice these down sides more and more as I scrolled through my feed, which is why I decided to take a break from the app. One month later, I can see a major difference.

Instagram used to be an outlet to be expressive and stay connected with the people around me, but the more I used it, the more it began to transform into something worse.

My feed consisted mainly of somehow candid, yet perfectly posed photos of girls and their best friends. With each new picture, I couldn’t help but compare myself to them. I started to tear away at my own account, and eventually picked apart who I was outside of the app. It created an unspoken competition between us. Whoever could get the most likes, followers and comments would win. But this competition never ended, and only left me feeling disappointed when my photos didn’t receive as many likes as others.

Besides the self-inflicted attacks, were those petty Instagram fights. People using comments, bios and captions as their weapons in a toxic war, passive aggressively tearing down another person without a second thought. Having experienced it first hand, witnessing countless other cases and even participating in the offense, I couldn’t understand why someone, including me, would take an app made for self-expression, and instead chose to spread hate.

This started my month-long journey. In those first few days, I caught myself trying to open an app that was no longer there. I was addicted and going through withdrawals. But as the days turned to weeks, I realized I no longer needed it. I spent less time on my phone, and more time with the friends I thought I needed Instagram to stay connected with. I finally felt free not worrying about what other people thought of my photos, and realized that anxiety I once held every time I opened the app had melted away.

Ending my social media addiction helped put my habits into perspective. Spending every ounce of my free time tweeting, snapping and posting was a waste, and this break taught me that there are better ways to spend my time. After a month, I’m still not sure if I’ll download Instagram again. For now, I am going to enjoy my newfound freedom without it.

To find out more about the study, visit: https://www.rsph.org.uk/about-us/news/instagram-ranked-worst-for-young-people-s-mental-health.html