HAVE you ever felt a sudden wave of anxiety while scrolling through Instagram?

You’re not alone, Instagramxiety is a real thing and can leave people feeling overwhelmed, stressed, jealous, self-loathing and down.

Getty – Contributor Constantly checking Instagram can leave people feeling self-conscious and anxious

Flattering and often touched-up pictures of celebrities, fitness bloggers, travel influences and even friends, family and colleagues can lead to anxiety and poor self-esteem.

This week is Mental health Awareness week, focusing on stress – a key factor in other mental health problems like depression and anxiety and easily exacerbated by social media.

It’s hard not to feel worried or stressed when you’re scrolling through Instagram on your couch comparing yourself to people who seem to be living their best lives, always out and about, when you are counting your flaws having pyjama day at home.

The popular social media site seems keen to address this having recently announced it was launching a wellbeing team.

Alamy Instagram recently announced it was launching a wellbeing team to help protect users

“Making the community a safer place, a place where people feel good, is a huge priority for Instagram,” cheif executive Eva Chen said.

And all it takes is one picture to send your mood plummeting.

“It sounds daft to suggest a platform where you post snaps of your dinner, cocktail or kids could make you feel down, but I’m serious: Instagram was affecting my mood on a daily basis,” Jenny Stallard writes for The Telegraph.

“Just one picture, one post, could skew my face from smiling to frowning.”

Getty – Contributor Many people, especially young people, suffer with low self-esteem after comparing themselves to people they see on social media

The trick to surviving the cruel world of social media is to find coping mechanisms.

Try unfollowing people whose posts make you anxious, or follow more accounts that make you laugh, or stay away from social media if you are already having a bad day.

“It’s not so much about stopping looking at the app, but being more selective about whose feeds you see, I’ve found, since unfollowing some people whose accounts really made me feel negative (often through no fault of their own),” Jenny added.

“If I decide to, I can always follow them again. But I suspect life will be simpler without the effects that comparing myself to their accounts has on my emotional wellbeing.”

Getty – Contributor Social media allows us to look into the lives of hundreds of thousands of people at the touch of a button Cal Strode, spokesman for the Mental Health Foundation, said: “Too much comparing ourselves to others can give rise to anxiety and is nothing new.

“Previously, we could only see a few people at any time. Today, the average Instagram user can see into the lives of hundreds of others.

“It’s only right that we’re starting to wonder if this expanded line of sight could be undermining our mental health.

“What we know is that self-acceptance and self-esteem are crucial for good mental health.

“Comparing ourselves to others excessively undermines these things and can make us feel inadequate.”

Last year Instagram was named the most harmful social media site for young peoples’ mental health.

The “imaged-focused” photo app can hit body perception, sleep and fear of missing out, a report from The Royal Society for Public Health found.

Getty – Contributor It’s a good idea to limit social media time and follow more pages that make you smile to protect your mental health

Experts asked  1,479 people aged 14 to 24 to score sites on issues like anxiety, loneliness and community building.

Instagram came in as the worst site, with YouTube and Twitter scoring best.

Dr Becky Inkster, honorary research fellow at the University of Cambridge, said: “Young people sometimes feel more comfortable talking about personal issues online.

“As health professionals, we must make every attempt to understand modern youth culture expressions.”

Other studies have found that just 30 minutes of scrolling through “fitspiration” posts was enough to make women feel badly about their weight and appearance.

The University of New South Wales study, which drew on survey results from 350 Australian and American women aged 18-25, found that the more participants looked at pics of social media fitness stars or compared themselves to celebrities such as Kendall Jenner or Karlie Kloss, the unhappier they felt about their own bodies.

Experts warned it could lead to a greater number of eating disorder diagnoses.

More than 750,000 people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder, according to the eating disorder charity B-EAT.

Recently there has been a spike in the number of people suffering from orthorexia, a not yet recognised eating disorder that fuels a need to only eat pure and healthy foods, linked to “healthy” social media posts.