One of the topics garnering a lot of attention in the mental
health world is social media. Because
97% of all teenagers will use social media daily now, it is creating discussion
as to whether we are seeing a growing addiction in this area. A study done by Dr. Popova, Dr. Lange et al
in 2013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3691637/
shows that a disproportionate number of individuals with FASD will also develop
an addiction of some type. While it is
not clear how susceptible people with FASD are to addictions, it is a very real
possibility. One of the questions that
gets raised is how do you tell if someone has a social media addiction or
not? Just because someone uses social
media a lot, it doesn’t necessarily mean they have an addiction.
A social media addiction needs to be diagnosed by a
professional, but to determine if you should be seeking help, ask yourself
these six questions from Dr. Griffiths in Psychology Today 2018. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/in-excess/201805/addicted-social-media
1.
Do you spend a lot of time thinking about
social media or planning to use social media?
2.
Do you feel urges to use social media more and
more?
3.
Do you use social media to forget about
personal problems?
4.
Do you often try to reduce your use of social
media without success?
5.
Do you become restless or troubled if you are
unable to use social media?
6.
Do you use social media so much that it has had
a negative impact on your job or studies?
In Lanark County, addiction counseling is part of mental
health rather than a separate entity. It
is a speciality that a neuropsychologist or psychotherapist can support. If you are seeking help, make sure you are
looking for a counselor who specializes in addictions. I can remember 10 years ago the advice was we
should not be spending more than an hour watching TV per day. The rule remains the same for screen time in
general. Yet, when you look at how much
technology is a part of our life now, it is not surprising that over 69% of our
teenagers are spending over 2 hours a day watching screens according to
StatsCan 2015. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1310079901&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.1&pickMembers%5B1%5D=2.3&pickMembers%5B2%5D=3.1&pickMembers%5B3%5D=5.1
It is also not surprising that when you consider how social
media works, that it can lead to addictions.
Social media works in the same type of way as addictive substances. We know that alcohol is considered a gateway
drug to other drugs. When we look at
which substances addicted drug users start with, 54% began with underage
drinking. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26645418 Social media starts the same way. It encourages usage with Pavlov’s theories of
action/reward. The number of children I
see playing Candy Crush or Slither.io is substantial. Because they are rated for children and are
free, they have become very popular.
These games create no thought and simply have the child follow movement
developing muscle memory for their eyes.
However, they provide use points or pictures of gold stars, coins or
other items as rewards. The children
become very focused gathering points.
Fortnite is the game of choice now with 61% of all gamers and it can be
very challenging maintaining mental health while playing. The game is basically The Hunger Games in
video. You spend your entire time trying
to not get killed. Your brain stays
stressed throughout with high chemical release and really has no healthy way of
releasing such as the feeling and celebration of accomplishment. Studies are showing desensitizing children to
violence has adverse outcomes. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/sax-sex/201805/fortnite-boys-and-self-control
In the business sector, celebrating accomplishments is known
to be a vital part of success.
Celebrating accomplishments give an end goal, increases motivation and
productivity, improves physiology and strengthens mental health, tightens and
strengthens our network, and positions you as a winner leading to greater
success. https://www.inc.com/bill-carmody/3-reasons-celebrating-your-many-accomplishments-is-critical-to-your-success.html
When we are consistently denied the opportunity to celebrate accomplishments,
we become much more vulnerable to depression and exhaustion.
This is why in the Rural FASD Support Network, we make sure
we always have sharing time in our support meetings and celebrate
accomplishments. It is this positive
energy that brings us together and enables us to overcome the bad times.
In my opinion, social media sites like Snapchat, Instagram
and worst of all, TikTok do the opposite.
They never allow celebration and constantly encourage our teenagers and
young adults through a barrage of notifications to keep gathering more
likes. In fact, they are now providing
tutorials on how to legally create soft porn videos to get the most likes. The old rule of knowing what your children
are doing and who they are hanging with still applies. There is still nothing wrong with telling our
children to get off the devices and go outside and play. We have found using parental control apps
like Family Link for Google/Android or Circle by Disney can be very effective
at controlling device usage. I can also
tell you as a Spec Ed educator of several years, the children will rumble for
two days about having devices taken away.
If you remain firm and give them an alternative, you just need to hang
tough for two days to get on the right path to self-control. And as Dr. Sax says, self-control is the number
one predictor to lifetime success.
