The Danger of Overstimulation
By Amber Bateman, Licensed Professional Counselor
Do you ever get that feeling? That foggy brain, head aches, mentally tired, blah kind of feeling? That I’m tired but can’t sleep, can’t stop my brain from churning, images swirling in my mind’s eye feeling? When you’re irritable and moody, but if someone asks you what’s wrong, you can’t name anything. But something definitely is—wrong.
It is estimated that the average American spends seven to eight hours on digital media every day: scrolling social media, streaming videos, gaming, and more. Eight hours—that is roughly a third of our lives spent looking at screens. And this is the average. Meaning that some people are spending more than eight hours a day consuming digital content.
I used to think I was not that affected by social media because I put time restrictions on it. I spent less than 10 minutes on social media a day. But one day it hit me. It’s not only the amount of time that matters. It’s the amount of stimulation. In approximately thirty seconds of scrolling, I was exposed to at least 10-15 different posts, images, video shorts, and comments from people who clearly don’t know what they’re talking about. I felt excitement for my niece’s ball game win, I missed my friend in another state, and I was frustrated about that comment. That’s a lot of mental activity—and it was crammed into thirty seconds.
“We used to have limits,” a fellow counselor once said. “Before the internet, you would finish a book or the newspaper and feel satisfied. There was nothing else to click on.” How different things have become. There is literally no limit to the amount of mental stimulation we can inflict upon our brains. It is so easily possibly to make ourselves mentally sick with too much information. We were not designed to have unlimited access to information, and it has a cost to our mental health.
Overstimulation can increase anxiety, cause us to feel that we are chronically behind in life, and be more irritable with loved ones. It can reduce our ability to remember and organize information, to solve problems effectively, and to be able to truly relax and sleep well. Of course, there are many factors that affect these areas of our lives, but fortunately overstimulation is one we can actually do something about.
Three tips to reduce overstimulation and improve your mental health:
Silence all email and social media notifications on your phone. You do not immediately need to know when your cousin’s mother in law’s cat has a new picture up on Instagram. Set aside a designated, specific time when you can check and respond to any emails or social media interactions. For example, you may choose to only check work emails when you are at work (and depending on your job you could probably set specific times to check email during working hours). Another example would be choosing to check social media for 15 minutes on your lunch break and then don’t look at it again for 24 hours.
Resist the urge to check your phone. Every time you look at your phone, you are mentally leaving the place you currently are and the thing you were focusing on (your work, your kids, your housework, your meal). When you hear it ping, take a breath and intentionally keep doing what you were doing for at least a minute or two. You should be under no obligation to answer a text or email within 2 minutes. If the thing that’s happening on the phone (a text conversation with a friend for example) is important to you and you want to respond promptly, try stopping what you are doing and just take a few minutes to focus on that text conversation. Better yet, call the person if possible and have a present and focused conversation.
Identify your priorities. Picture yourself years from now, toward the end of your life. How would you have wanted your younger self to spend time, your mental and emotional energy? What interests have you wanted to pursue but you’ve always told yourself you don’t have time? Is it gardening, fishing, taking your dog for evening walks, baking bread, tinkering with cars, painting your bathroom, building model plans with your grandson, star gazing for a few minutes before bed—what is it? Many people go to their phones out of habit. They don’t even think about it. Have these priorities in mind if you choose to reduce your mental clutter. You’re going to need them because when you stop exposing yourself to so much clutter, you will not know what to do with yourself. So have some ideas ready.
“You only have so much time and mental space. How do you want to fill it?”
- Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism
For more strategies about what to do with overstimulation, as well as other cultural dangers, read Save Yourself Some Therapy: Four Modern Dangers to Our Mental Health & What to Do about It by Amber Bateman, Licensed Professional Counselor.
