Social Media Addiction Faced – Detox The Only Answer

My eyes have fully opened recently to the extent of addiction in myself and society generally. Of course addiction is a problem for most societies, but usually the addiction only holds a small minority captive. This time, however, it appears to have the majority of society held by the addictive mechanism and pretty much completely unaware of.

What is it? Yup, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – It’s called Social Media only it’s not very social.

It’s a revolution folks, a revolution of the way we react and interact. In the last 10 years the way we do EVERYTHING has changed fundamentally, and that means we have had no real time to adjust either mentally or, more to the point, emotionally. The tsunami of social media interaction has begun to define our lives. And short of a total meltdown of the internet or a collapse of society, the tsunami has only just begun.

Statistics reveal that cell phone use and web use generally increased enormously from 2014. Check this to see what Im talking about!
http://www.internetlivestats.com/watch/internet-users/

Some statistics: Around 40% of the world population has an internet connection today. In 1995, it was less than 1%.
The number of internet users has increased tenfold from 1999 to 2013.
The first billion was reached in 2005. The second billion in 2010. The third billion in 2014.

But the statistics are one thing. The anecdotal, visual evidence, is more distressing and alarming.

Look around at your friends, your kids, maybe even your parents, look in the malls, or on public transport, and then take a deep and honest look inside yourself and see if you are really any different from any of them. ADDICTION IS NOT ON AND OFF. It’s not a switch that is either up, meaning not addicted, or down, meaning addicted. Oh no. Addiction is all about degrees and measures. Addiction is wrapped up with necessity and habit, with social conditioning and deeply held human issues rooted in our ancestral dna, and stuff about the herd mentality and ancient tribal behaviour demanded by sheer survival.

Check whether this list includes anything you do.
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/facebook-addiction-signs/

Almost everyone is addicted to something, even if its just in some small way. It may be subtle, or it may be all consuming, but its there. It may not interfere with healthy functioning, but its there, and its something that pulls at us if we don’t do it habitually. It may not be that destructive to our life, well being, relationships, work and so on but there it is.

WISDOM AND ADDICTION ARE LIKE OIL AND WATER.

I think the sooner we recognise that addictive impulse in ourselves and where it lives, in what dark corner it hides, and, most importantly, what purpose is it serving, the more we can understand ourselves and transcend the torment of our addictions. Because the nature of addiction is unconscious and denied. And it ALWAYS serves a purpose, always it offers us the carrot of salvation from our suffering. It always offers us love. But addiction itself is a highly powerful force. Even more than the object of ones addiction is the ADDICTION. It is a mechanism, a highly powerful shadowy mechanism that thrives on darkness and fear.

Because addiction is so closely linked to our basic existential nature it is intertwined with the two base forces of love and fear.

Maybe addiction is the unconscious human answer to separation syndrome. Thats why addiction is essentially a spiritual phenomena.

The answer to addiction is waking up to the truth of who you are. The answer to all addiction is love and inner authority. To overcome addiction, as well as the physical component, one must fall in love with oneself, show up, tell the truth, see where you hide from fear and what you are afraid of, and then chose to love yourself. The answer to addiction is love and connection, but that connection is to yourself and the world.

POWER.

Anything less than your full power released into the world could result in the activation of this addiction mechanism. It may protect you for a while. But it will eat you in the end. It is voracious and hungry.

So let us return to the issue in hand. The modern cultural acceptable addiction. Social media.
Head down, buried in the screen, totally distracted, emotionally dependent on ‘likes’, comments, notifications, increasing friends lists, etc etc we disappear from awareness and presence into the world of the mind through the screen and down the rabbit hole.

We check our phones at least 150 times a day, many of us, so I worked out that on average that means every 6 minutes or so. And it is increasing.

If it affects you, if you keep checking your phone, inbox, social media, even when there is no real reason, then I’m afraid you are in the modern matrix. And the matrix has you.

I know because I have been in the matrix also. I was completely convinced I was acting from real freedom and just exercising my freedoms and really enjoying all my friends and contacts and likes etc. But the truth was that the walls of my prison had changed and got smaller. They built the prison around me while I was distracted by content.

BOILING THE FROG.
Many of us have been led, innocently, to the pot on the stove and have been boiled, so slowly we have not noticed. These giant social media corporations hire well qualified, highly professional psychologists and marketers to investigate you and me and to work out how to get us to do what they want, willingly and blindly, as though we were free.

They know your habits, your preferences, your likes, dislikes they know how long you do something and they know what you don’t like. Between your phone stats, your Facebook analytics, google and amazon they know you better than you know yourself. You have an online profile that informs social media and they promote and market to accordingly. They feed you what you want, even if you don’t know what you want.

It is that scary. And you don’t even realise, because they have offset their activities with your rewards. Those rewards are (the illusion of) connection, being liked, importance, information, and power.

Don’t buy any of it because its not real.

I quit Facebook and Twitter very recently and I am feeling the effects of the withdrawal. Some parts of life have been rendered meaningless.  Where is the instant gratification of a new like? Where is the surfing new posts to give me some distraction? Where is the relief I get every day, relief from the truth of my own life?

Gone…Facebook shut down and Twitter deactivated. It feels powerful, detoxing and vulnerable….Do it…try it out, inquire, investigate, tell the truth.
And comment here…Its the only place you will find me..

The Matrix has you…..and at some point you have to make a decision..

Is Google a Health Resource or a Rabbit Hole of Fear?

Have you used Google search to look up your symptoms?
Have you speculated about what you are suffering from and found Google useful?
Have you looked up health tips?
Foods to eat?
Exercise regimes and tips?

If you answered yes to any or most of these questions you are in good company!
Because the truth is that, even though Google searching is fraught with the potential for wrong information and misdiagnosis, the benefits, at least to this writer and researcher, far outweigh the drawbacks.

Imagine a world without a decent search engine. Imagine it being taken away from us at this point where we have got so used to it. It’s nigh on impossible to imagine. Google is intertwined with our existence, for good and bad, and usually both, and like most of these things, we either make it work for us or it may well work against, or leave us behind.

Make no mistake, it’s almost a certainty that the doctor you go and see in real life, who you depend on for precision diagnosis and ‘absolute authority,’ uses Google. Some don’t, most do. I have witnessed this with my own eyes twice, and at first it shocked me and even made me laugh, but since the second time I remember actually thinking, ‘Why Not?’
What is wrong with my doctor using this extensive resource?

I think we have old paradigm beliefs about the sacrosanct role of the doctor. Somehow we have elevated doctor to the level of wise man, sage, ultimate authority and ‘god.’ Well maybe god is a bit much but you get my point! We expect the doctor to be the font of all knowledge and never have to refer to books or Google. Surely they are supposed to know all?

MEDICAL SYSTEM IS THE NEW CHURCH.

But this is quite obviously an illusion and I believe we should cut these doctors some slack and realise they are just the arbiters and representatives of a system called the medical system. While we uphold the medical system as the only system, the ultimate body church we all pray at, and the only answer to this vast issue of illness, we are going to be trapped in the need to elevate the doctor onto a pedestal. And we all know what happens when one is on a pedestal, the only way is down.

What I am saying is lets realise the doctor is fallible, human, and in the dark about many things. I have been let down, disappointed and frustrated as many times as relieved, by my doctor. So much of the time they simply don’t have answers and go through the ‘referring you to a specialist’ stuff. They don’t know about food and diets, they don’t know about how interconnected the mind and emotions are with health, they don’t know about herbs and traditional remedies and, in the UK, only spend 10 short minutes with you anyway. 

10 minutes is not enough time to get to grips wth your health or illness. Period.

Unfortunately the doctor is also caught in the elevation of their starring role in your health. many of them are caught up in their own power I am afraid to say. And then if you go to see them and happen to say ‘I have been researching my symptoms on Google and have some ideas,’ you may well get the ‘eye roll’ as I call it. Or they could be downright hostile to you.

DO NOT LET THAT PUT YOU OFF.

Recently I have had a relatively new doctor I have seen for this unbelievable rash I couldn’t get to grips with. I talked to this doctor honestly and openly about preferring natural healing, wanting to take responsibility, and what I have been exploring on Google. I was totally non confrontational and actually asked for his help. Luckily he was open to my ideas and we explored them. Some of them he said ‘Absolutely no way it could be that,’ and other ideas he said, ‘Let’s test and see,’ and so we did.

He reflected my need to be directly involved in my own health investigation. He could see how important it was for me to know what was causing this issue. I didn’t just want medication, in fact I didn’t want meds at all, but I wanted to know.

And he responded to this warmly and encouragingly. That is how change will happen.

Sometimes I think we want the system to change from the outside first, we want the doctors and the medical system to wake up and transform itself. But it has been proved time and time again that systems only change when there is a movement that forces them to change.

Which brings me back to Google. Now I am not suggesting Google is the answer to the problems facing us in illness and health. Google itself will not spark the revolution in health we so badly need.

BUT. Google is empowerment of the patient. Google is information. It is such a valuable resource it has to be included in your toolbox of resources. And the more you use it, diligently and intelligently, the better it gets and the more it reveals.

A couple of tips for using Google:
Take the emotionality out of it. Don’t let it inflame your fear. It can and it will feed fear if you let it. If you are afraid and fearful, don’t use it. Computers and internet tend to amplify our mental and emotional states, believe me I know this for myself. So be warned, and if in doubt do not use!!
Be open to what arrives through Google, and try different phrases and words, scroll down and find alternative sites not just the top ones, particularly the sponsored ones, and use it as an exploration of possibilities, until you get more experienced.
Ask a loved one to help and do it together. It sounds like weird fun but actually it engages you both in a kind of detective mission.

THE EMPOWERED AND INFORMED PATIENT OF THE FUTURE.

Consider this. You are, in the long term, changing your relationship to this holy ‘doctor’ idea. In the longterm it is you who are going to be at the centre of your health and wellbeing. With radical new testing gadgets and apps coming on line and usable at home, and with so many alternative possibilities available for healing illness, the future is all about change. And that makes the doctor a vital part of your health team, but only a part, not the whole thing.

And Google, or other search engines if you prefer, is going to be a very useful and necessary part of your research and responsibility.

But you are going to be at the centre of it. It is a vital part of the change. When we say, and this quote is so often used, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world,’ we need to include our personal care responsibility with every other thing we do. An informed and insightful, a wise and intelligent patient is one who will take preventative action as well as remedial.

There is a revolution taking place this century, and informed and engaged patients are at the centre of it. It is very exciting.

If you don’t believe me, check out this article recently published.
The Blockbuster Drug of the Century – An Engaged Patient.

Thanks for reading, happy searching!