For years, creators have sounded the alarm about the pervasive mental health issues they deal with in their line of work. Problems like burnout, unhealthy fan relationships, and AI-related anxieties continue to affect creators years after they were first identified.
That concerning trend spurred Creators 4 Mental Health into action. The initiative led by What’s Trending host Shira Lazar has already provided its partners with valuable mental health services and other benefits. Now, to characterize the full scope of the creator mental health crisis, Lazar’s outfit teamed up with Lupiani Insights & Strategies to publish a dataset described as “the most comprehensive study to date on the mental health of digital content creators.”
The Creator Mental Health Study came together thanks to support from several sponsors, including Opus, BeReal, Social Currant, Statusphere, and The AAKOMA Project. Empowered by those backers, the researchers surveyed 542 full and part-time creators across North America.
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As you might have surmised, the results of that survey are harrowing. 62% of respondents said they experience burnout, while 69% of them admitted that they obsess over the performance of their content. These issues become more common for creators who have been active for at least five years. A whopping 89% of the surveyed individuals claimed to lack access to specialized mental health resources and benefits — a problem Creators 4 Mental Health is actively attempting to solve.
“Creators are not just influencers — we’re small business owners, entrepreneurs, and digital gig workers building a new economy,” Lazar said in a statement. “We’re doing the work of entire teams without the protections traditional workers receive. If this is the new workplace, mental well-being can’t be an afterthought — it has to be part of the foundation of this industry, with real support and care as it grows.”
“It’s important that we keep shining a light on mental health in the creator space,” Conor Eliot, Head of Creator, Event, and Co-Marketing Partnerships at Opus, adds. “Creators often live a unique lifestyle that brings challenges like loneliness, the pressure to constantly perform, and the blurred line between personal and public life. Conversations like these help us move toward building resources and spaces where creators can feel seen, supported, and connected.”
Sadly, the creator mental health crisis is too big for any organization to handle on its own. 10% of survey respondents said they have had suicidal thoughts related to their work. That’s twice the U.S. adult rate provided by the NIMH. Recent creator deaths by suicide, including those of Mikayla Raines and Misha Agarwal, have highlighted the pressing need for more resources that can assist creators who feel hopeless.
What might those resources look like? While there is room for specialized solutions, there is also a correlation between a creator’s career outcomes and their mental health condition. 58% of respondents said their self-worth declines when their content underperforms, and 69% reported financial insecurity as a result of their work. That status has been associated with deleterious mental health outcomes.
With a problem this widespread, there’s no single “silver bullet” that can clear up the concerns. Through a mixture of safety nets — including explicit mental health resources and more generalized business tools — the creator industry can support the individuals who need it most.
Opus is a Tubefilter partner.
