Tim Maude Hypnotherapy

Tag: #FOMO

  • Controlling the Scrolling: Social Media and Mental Health

    Controlling the Scrolling: Social Media and Mental Health

    Social media is now part of our society. Research suggests that around 4.9 billion people around the world use social media, spending an average of 145 minutes (that’s nearly two and a half hours) every day. Studies suggest that this may cause an increase in anxiety and depression.

    Anxiety, Depression and Social Media

    You may wonder how social media can impact our mental health? It starts with the addictive nature of social media. These systems are designed to keep us scrolling. It effects the brain by giving us little hits of dopamine – when we see something we like, when someone likes our post, when someone mentions us … and so on. And the dopamine just encourages us to carry on scrolling, looking for the next hit.

    After a while, we need to keep checking our social media just to feel normal, and when we are deprived of it, we feel low – encouraging feelings of anxiety and depression.

    The content that we look at on social media can also cause feelings of anxiety and depression. When someone criticises you or your post, or when you are wondering why your post did not get as many likes as you would like – it creates bad feelings.

    When you see all the happy smiling faces of your friends, as they post about the highlights of their day, you may wonder why your day has not been 24 hours of delight as your friends appear to have.

    All these can lead to feeling bad about yourself. It allows the primitive, anxiety-and-depression-creating part of the brain to take over.

    Social Media Isn’t All Bad

    Please don’t think that I am saying that social media is a bad thing. It has many positive impacts too. It allows people to express themselves, maintains social contact with friends everywhere as well as being a useful source of information. It’s all about balance.

    Social Media Self-Control

    When I ask my clients what little thing they could do to improve their lives, one thing that often comes up is controlling the scrolling. They find that too much social media has a negative impact on their lives, so they resolve to cut it down. The common way to do this is to create self-imposed rules about when and where they use social media.

    Here are a few self-imposed rules that my clients have decided that they will take on:

    • Put the phone down at 8 in the evening – nothing more after that
    • No scrolling in bed
    • No scrolling while sitting on the toilet
    • No looking at the phone until after breakfast
    • Put the phone away while watching television
    • No looking at social media at meal times
    • A social media fast – a month without any social media

    You might like to think what self-control rules you might apply.

    And Finally …

    I always encourage people who talk to me about their anxiety or they mental health in general – find some changes they can do themselves to make it better. Even so, some people still need help.

    If you would like my help – I use hypnotherapy to help my clients regain control of their lives. I work in my clinic in Fleet, Hampshire as well as online, so Contact Me if you would like a chat about it.

    References

    Social media’s impact on our mental health
    https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/cultivating-health/social-medias-impact-our-mental-health-and-tips-to-use-it-safely/2024/05

    Impact of social media on social anxiety: A systematic review
    https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=pTCRDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA129&dq=impact+of+social+media+on+anxiety&ots=YpmHilZJMr&sig=G5EGh9TTrSYkiZDpdVbsHt68qk8#v=onepage&q=impact%20of%20social%20media%20on%20anxiety&f=false

    Photo courtesy of fauxels on Pexels

  • Nomophobia and SMA: 21st Century Mental Health Issues

    Nomophobia and SMA: 21st Century Mental Health Issues

    Do you suffer from Nomophobia or SMA? If so, you are a victim of the technological rise of the 21st century. But first, I need to explain what these terms are:

    • Nomophobia is a fear of being without your mobile phone and anxiety when you are without it.
    • SMA is Social Media Addiction – a compulsion to use social media.

    Technology companies are keen for all of us to be using our mobile devices, especially to connect to social media, as much as possible. These platforms are designed to make us want to keep going back and using them again and again.

    Don’t get me wrong – I am all in favour of the use of technology to make the world an easier and more pleasant place to be in. But it is so easy to become attached and addicted to it all.

    Just imagine that, for a day, your phone battery is dead and for some reason you are unable to charge it until tomorrow. How would you feel? Would you be anxious, worried, feel a sense of agitation and disorientation? Does the thought of being without your phone for 24 hours fill you with fear? This is nomophobia – fear of being without your phone because of the anxiety it induces when your phone is not there.

    Do you feel compelled to check your social media channels all the time? How long could you go – comfortably – without checking your social media? Are you looking to see how many likes or shares you have got? Do you feel a compulsion to check up to see what your friends are doing? This is SMA – social media addiction.

    These conditions simply did not exist before the rise of the mobile phone and social media. These are modern day conditions. Over half the world’s population owns a smartphone and over half the world’s population uses social media. Many are able to do without it, but it is those who become addicted that have a problem.

    Mental health issues arise when users become start believing the abusive remarks made to them and others, when they get addicted to graphic pornography or other material, when they are so compelled to online that the rest of their lives suffer. This is a series mental health issue that continues to grow in the 21st century.

    And Finally …

    If you have issues that you need help with, nomophobia, SMA or other forms of anxiety and addiction, you might like to consider hypnotherapy. I run my hypnotherapy clinic in Fleet, Hampshire and (ironically!) also online. Contact me if you would like a chat about how hypnotherapy could help you.

    Photo courtesy of fauxels on Pexels

  • FOMO Induced Anxiety

    FOMO Induced Anxiety

    In 2004, in an article for the Harvard Business School, Patrick J McGinnis coined a new word – FOMO – the Fear of Missing Out. Simply put, FOMO is the fear that other people are getting something that you are not – so you are missing out. Since McGinnis first coined the term, there has been a growing realisation of how important FOMO is – and in particular, its impact on anxiety, depression and other mental disorders.

    FOMO has become far more prevalent in the age of social media, and it works like this …

    Jo has lots of friends on social media. When her friends do something interesting or exciting, they post about it. Jo also follows several good looking social media influencers. These influencers get lots of photos taken of themselves (and, believe me, they have trained themselves to pose so that they look really good). They choose the best photos to publish. Jo also follows other people who have really interesting hobbies and publish photos of the highlights.

    So Jo is bombarded with pictures, videos and other posts which are all exciting – the people sho follows at their best. She spends several hours every day keeping up with all her friends and those she follows.

    Now Jo compares her life with the lives she sees on her phone. Her own life is filled with a lot of drab, boring times and just a few exciting or interesting times. Her own appearance looks dull and boring when compared with the beautiful pictures that the influencers post.

    So by making this comparison, Jo’s life and looks are way down the scale when compared with all the highlights – the very best of the lives and the best of the pictures – that she sees on her phone. And this comparison, even though it may be entirely unconscious, creates stress – it creates a fear of missing out. Maybe she is not doing enough. Maybe she should look more like the influencers. More stress … more anxiety.

    There is a skill to becoming content with who you are and what you are doing with your life. When you compare yourself and your life to what you see on social media, you are always going to be disappointed. FOMO has become the mental disorder of the Internet Age.

    So ask yourself a few questions:

    How much time do I spend on social media each day? (You phone may have a “screen time” monitor that will tell you this.)
    Is that time well spent?
    Would you be better off or worse off spending less time on your phone?
    On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy does being on social media make you?
    How content are you just to be happy with who you really are?

    If you are still struggling making the changes that you need to, and you want some help, then you can always contact me. Here in my clinic in Fleet, I help people who are only just coping with anxiety and stress. I use hypnotherapy to help them regain control in their lives.

    Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash