Mental Health Leadership

Why Social Media Fast Was the Best Decision for My Mental Health

How to overcome addictive and non-serving behavior

Possibly, an article like this from a person whose social media posts get millions of impressions might surprise my readers. But I explain the madness behind my order.

Even though I use social media for business, I perform a digital fast for the personal use of social media, especially Facebook and Instagram.

My problem is the problem of millions. We know that 70% of the population in America has social media accounts.

Addiction to Social Media and Attachment Styles was discussed in a systematic literature review published in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.

As pointed out by researchers in this paper titled, Effects of Social Media on Mental Health: A Review,

“The imbalance created by the excessive usage of social media is a significant concern for parents, researchers, and, society regarding the mental health of individuals”.

Unfortunately, I suffered from the side effects of social media a lot. As a matter of fact, my mental health was at stake due to addiction.

But fortunately, I discovered the problem early and made quick decisions. So, I stopped it before it became a more significant problem.

It was terrible to be ruled by assumptions and false beliefs. It was worse to be consumed by the troubles of strangers in virtual settings.

In my case, I needed to break a non-serving habit. However, as confirmed by scientists, it is difficult to give up the habit of giving dopamine to our brains, even if we know it is terrible for us.

So, instead, it is much easier to replace it with another dopamine-producing habit that is valuable and healthy.

This is a personal story with hard-learned lessons reflecting facts from my professional journey.

Before going into the details of my exciting story, I support the use of social media and technology tools for business. I am a technologist by profession. Social media tools have their places and many great use cases for business. They work for various people differently.

Nevertheless, the problem happens when these tools start ruling our lives. I had to make tough decisions to stop trading off my health, fitness, and valuable time.

Almost every disease under the sun is associated with chronic stress. It is an undeniable truth. A recent study, by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Health suggests that “even small daily stress factors can lead to health problems later in life”.

Like any business professional, I suffered a lot from chronic stress.

My main problem was not understanding the real meaning of mental and emotional stress. I thought stress occurred only when we felt physical pain and when we were tired of work. It was my mistake.

I never thought good things like hard work, dedication, consistency, friendliness, and even excitement would cause stress. I did not know the hormonal effects of stress.

For example, I did not realize excessive cortisol was toxic to the brain until undesirable symptoms started manifesting.

The biggest time-waster for me was social media. Stopping the use of social media made the most significant difference.

Admittedly, engagement in social media gave me a lot of excitement when I discovered my childhood friends from college, secondary school, and even primary school years.

In the beginning, I was elated when I had initial conversations with my childhood friends. However, after accumulating hundreds of friends and followers, things changed dramatically. Two hidden problems started emerging.

Initially, I did not notice the issues. I was like the frog in the water, warming slowly and burning myself.

The first problem was spending more and more time chatting with those friends. Most of them were asking for my email address. Many of them shared their life stories covering decades in long emails. I was reading them with excitement.

Then, one day, I noticed that I spent at least two hours replying to messages, reacting to their posts, and clearing emails from those friends.

Losing time was not the only problem. The real problem was the stress caused by these two points:

The first one is overloading myself with two hours of excessive interactions with friends.

The second one was sacrificing my rest time with excitement.

After eight hours of intensive work, I dealt with two hours of social media analysis and response when I came home. Even though it did not seem to be formal work, after a while, it turned out to work. So, I ended up working ten hours a day.

I found myself solving the problems of my old friends with whom I had no real-life connection. Since they were friends, their concerns were hurting me subconsciously.

Interestingly, rather than joy, most of them were bringing problems, such as breaking up with their boyfriends or girlfriends, how their parents acted so unfair to them, how they lost their business, the accidents that caused them lifetime suffering, the debilitating diseases they have, and many more. You get the picture.

I felt like a pseudo-shrink without qualifications. As a worst case, I was taking their problems to heart. It was causing me substantial stress.

I only discovered this stress when my family doctor informed me that my cortisol levels were beyond the acceptable level. We had a conversation to assess the stressors in my life.

After touching each point, the culprit became evident. It was social media. What could I do to remove this culprit from my life? I didn’t cut it cold turkey.

The best solution was quickly analyzed the situation of my friends. Out of 1,000 plus, only around ten of them really resonated with me. They were the ones I wanted to hang out with. The rest were noise producers and caused unintentional toxicity to my life.

So I approached those ten friends and added them to my email and phone directory. I only approach them occasionally, pointing out to them that I was taking a social media fast. They understood.

I stopped using social media for a few months. Then, I noticed that most of those noisemakers disappeared. I love communicating with my excellent friends at our convenience. We help each other whenever we need help.

They are the ones who understand and practice reciprocity. They are the ones who take personal responsibility and who do not bother me with daily whining.

As a result of disconnecting from social media, a tremendous load disappeared from my shoulders. As a matter of fact, my sleep started improving. I experienced achieving more by doing less.

Initially, I craved the dopamine-boosting effect of social media. This phenomenon is widely researched as pointed out in a research paper on social media addiction and dopamine-driven feedback.

However, I replaced my craving with favorite activities such as reading my favorite books, listening to classical music, having a spa bath, jumping on a trampoline, writing an article, calling a real friend, and having ten minutes of meaningful chat. This helped me to beat the craving.

Gaining two hours of extra time to do quality activities enriched my daily living and substantially reduced my stress. Stress was ruining my life. But after disconnecting from social media, my mental health and fitness have improved.

Truthfully, I did not lose anything by giving up social media. I still use several social media tools for business activities, but it is entirely a different story for another time. I shared my experience on meaningful and productive use of social media for writers in this story.

You may perceive social media messaging to be exciting and fun. But it doesn’t relax you as much as doing more meaningful things that you really enjoy.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

If you are a new reader and find this article valuable, you might check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting on my reviews, observations, and decades of sensible experiments.

Sample Health Improvement Articles for New Readers

I write about various hormones and neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, adrenaline, glutamate, and histamine.

One of my goals as a writer is to raise awareness about the causes and risk factors of prevalent diseases that can lead to suffering and death for a large portion of the population.

To raise awareness about health issues, I have written several articles that present my holistic health findings from research, personal observations, and unique experiences. Below are links to these articles for easy access.

Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorder, and Major Diseases.

I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:

Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, Cod Liver Oil, and other nutrients to improve metabolism and mental health.

Disclaimer: Please note that my posts do not include professional or health advice. I document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.

I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. My focus is on metabolic, cellular, mitochondrial, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.

If you enjoy writing and storytelling, you can join Medium, NewsBreak, and Vocal as a creator to find your voice, reach out to a broad audience, and monetize your content.

You may also check my blog posts about my articles and articles of other writers contributing to my publications on Medium. I share them on my website digitalmehmet.com. Here is my professional bio. You can contact me via weblink.

You might join my six publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link. 25K+ writers contribute to my publications. You might find more information about my professional background.