Mental Health & Streaming - How Kick Community Can Help

Whether you’re new to streaming or an experienced content creator with years of work under your belt, taking care of your mental health is of the utmost importance. Here at Kick Community, we're dedicated to providing the resources and support to ensure that everybody, from casual viewers to professional gamers are in a healthy state of mind when navigating the online world that is Kick.

How Does Streaming Affect Mental Health?

As with any form of work, especially when it comes to the creative industries, burnout is a real concern for content creators. If you’re building a channel, looking after an established brand, or even just maintaining a small production, looking after a content strategy on your own is hard work. Making sure that you’re keeping things fresh while ensuring that you stick to a regular schedule that serves your audience can be a particularly tricky juggling act. You want to be able to recharge but you may feel like you’re letting your audience down if you take some time off to get your energy back.

On top of that, criticism and opening yourself up to feedback on your hard work and content can prove to be a lot for some people. If this is your first time hearing reviews of your work in real-time, the negative comments can often sound like they’re the loudest and this may lead to a feeling of being disheartened. This is common in content creation as your output and your product is largely built around your personality. Because of that, it can feel like a personal attack if someone doesn’t engage with what you’ve created in the way you would like them to. Working on your approach to maintaining your audience could be helpful to you.

If you are in the world of competitive games, the stressful nature of the business can sometimes take its toll. Many competitions are high stakes and prize pots can often be life changing for some streamers. Stress needs to be managed to ensure that you’re looking after yourself and this is even truer for professional esports competitors. In such a cut-throat world it can be easy to lose track of what it takes to keep yourself healthy physically and mentally, and this will begin to show quickly. This can take the form of burnout or even engaging in addictive behaviors as the potential to form unhealthy habits is increased.

How to Protect Your Mental Health on Kick

Looking after yourself is key and the biggest thing that you should be aware of if you’re dealing with mental health struggles is that you don’t need to deal with these things on your own. At Kick, there’s a supportive and empathetic community of creators and viewers who are there to help in a number of ways. Online communities like this within the Just Chatting category give you the opportunity to connect with people who have experienced similar difficulties, whether that’s with content production or unrelated personal events. Reaching out and speaking to someone could help you alleviate some of the pressure you may be feeling. Social isolation can quickly begin to take hold if you don’t take the opportunity to speak with others.

You should also make sure to keep an eye on your physical health on top of how you’re feeling emotionally. When you’re working hard on your channel, it shouldn’t come at the detriment of your well-being. Make sure to keep your mind and body active - keeping on the go is a great way of improving your mood and keeping on top of your mental health. Try taking regular breaks from your set-up in order to get blood flowing and do something you enjoy and find relaxing. It could help you feel the benefit of taking those breaks and reduce the risk of burnout.

How to Identify if You or Others Need Support

When you’re throwing yourself headfirst into the world of live streaming, it might be hard to work out when you’re starting to experience poor mental health and when you’re experiencing some natural stress in response to hard work or high-pressure scenarios. That’s why it’s important that you listen to your body and mind and be aware of any significant changes in mood, sleep, and even your weight and eating habits. A swing either way in any of these is a good indicator that you may need to speak to mental health professionals who will be able to tell you if you need to take a break and help you find any support you might need.

It might not even be that it’s your own mental health that is concerning you. As one of the most close-knit online communities, it’s important that we all look out for each other. If you notice that a streamer you watch the content of or a member of your chat is exhibiting concerning behaviors, such as discussing dark or harmful topics or having unusually extreme emotional reactions, reach out to them. If you need to, you can put these people in touch with mental health awareness charities and even reach out or submit a report to Kick support as our community guidelines are clear on content relating to harm to oneself or others. Depending on which country you’re based in, you will find professional online support and resources that can be used for those in need.

As much as you might love to connect with your audience, it could be that you see some concerning behavior in your chat or even that of someone else. In particular, if you see someone who seems to be relying too much on their connection with a streamer, this could indicate that they are isolated and in need of social interactions. A one-sided relationship, particularly online, is often known as a parasocial interaction. These sorts of relationships are often unhealthy and it’s important that, if you do reach out to someone you might be concerned about, you approach it sensitively and with care.

How & Where to Find Mental Health Support

There is a whole range of resources available for people struggling with their mental health. In the US, you can contact the Crisis Text Line for 24/7 assistance when it is most needed. Globally, you can use Befrienders, a service that can connect you with the right service based on where you live and get you support.

Mental Health Support Groups & Advocates

As a platform that takes pride in offering viewers a diverse range of content, it will be no surprise that there are streamers who focus extensively on mental health conversations. With these streamers, their channels will be a good place to connect with others who have advice and can be an ear for you when you feel you need to talk.

More Tips & Tricks When Streaming on Kick

While you can never predict when you will experience a difficult period in your life, there are certainly ways that you can set yourself up for success and ensure that you’re less likely to experience burnout and stress associated with streaming.

Make the Most of the Kick Community and Resources

It’s been a running theme but it’s always good advice to lean on others when you need assistance. As a streaming platform with a particular focus on video games, you have a tight group you can get advice and assistance from. The gaming community is one that loves to foster creativity. Reach out to fellow streamers, find some inspiration from our User Stories, or read up on the history and success of creators like xQc.

Use the Side Kicks Program

One of those community resources is the volunteer program Side Kicks. This is a system that is set up to help foster an atmosphere of collaboration among the users of Kick. Those who take part in the program will be able to help both the platform and individual streamers by working on tasks such as moderation. This will help relieve some of the pressure on creators by building a support network.

Utilize Social Media

A key way to get your voice heard amongst the crowd is to make use of the social media platforms that suit you and your content. Use sites like X (Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram to interact and build excitement around your work. The more that you promote yourself and allow others to engage with you away from your regular streams, the more successful you can be.

With all the information available to streamers, content creators, and audiences on Kick, it’s the perfect time to get started and become part of a project that puts its people first and looks after its community.