We believe in functional mental wellness, a holistic approach to mental health. We know that there's hope for those of us who have experienced trauma, even profound trauma and that's why we created the universe is your therapist podcast, we believe whether you call it God, the universe, source, unity or love that there is something much greater than us that conspires for our good, we envision a world of healing and connection, and we teach you simple but powerful practices that integrate your mind, body and spirit so that you can come home to your highest self and your truest identity. You are not broken, you are loved, and you can heal. My name is Amy Hoyt, and together with my sister, Lena, we will take you on a journey of healing and self discovery. Hi, welcome back to another episode. Today's episode is a topic that we've been hearing some buzz about lately, and that is social media, intermittent fasting. So we're going to talk about what it is and what it has to do with trauma or not. And get to the bottom of this, because we've been seeing it jump out a lot in social media, and we want to kind of start discussing it. So Lena, what is social media intermittent fasting, it is
the idea that as we have periods of time that we give up social media, that our dopamine after a period of time, our dopamine levels are able to even out. And I've looked at a lot of information by Dr. Anna Lemke out of University of Stanford, and her book, dopamine nation. And she talks about how social media is designed to keep us in a continuous feedback loop that humans are designed to want to have connection. And what social media does is it offers a type of connection. But we have a surge of dopamine when our brain is in this seek and find mode, and trying to find novelty and new things. And so while we're involved with social media and engage with it, we can feel great. But as soon as we stop, we feel terrible. And what we've mistakenly done, I believe, is we've thought, well, if I feel terrible, I probably should keep doing the thing that makes me feel good. But that sets up a feedback loop, where we again have these surges of dopamine. And in order to balance the dopamine out, we have a deficit of dopamine. And that's just part of the teeter totter that Dr. Lemke talks about with dopamine. So the more we do it, the harder it will be to feel good after we do it when we stop.
Thank you for that. Um, so what I'm hearing is that it is, well, first, I think we should explain to listeners who aren't aware of the trend that a social media intermittent fast is going and going on and off social media. So kind of like intermittent fasting, where you would not eat for a little bit or a long time and then eat in order to become healthier physically. We are talking about abstaining from social media for a while in order to become healthier mentally. Okay, so that's the parallel there. But your explanation is so good in that, it's it's a great opportunity to try and reset and try and feel better, because as we know from other studies, that sometimes people who are engaging in a lot of social media can have negative effects on self esteem, overall mood, their sense of well being. And so it makes sense then that people are trying to come up with ways that they can reduce those feelings. So by reducing social media, a lot of times we think, Oh, we're gonna feel better. And what I hear you saying is according to Dr. Lemke, we won't feel better right away. Absolutely. What you and I were talking about earlier today is the idea that when we are deeply addicted to something, that it's not enough actually to engage in any type of intermittent fasting from that activity or substance. What Dr. Lemke really highlights in her book is the importance of doing a fast from the addicted, the activity that we're addicted to for 30 days. And she says that after 30 days, our dopamine regulation has a chance to become More more even. And we don't have quite as intense the the teeter totter or seesaw effect.
But a lot of us aren't addicted to social media, we just crave it because it's been designed to drive that craving for us. And so learning how to give our brains a break, and taking a break from social media on occasion, can be helpful for emotion regulation, it can be helpful for allowing time for us to connect to nature to connect to people that we are able to see. And it gives the brain and the dopamine center a chance to become more balanced.
So are you saying that social media, intermittent fasting still has benefits? Despite Lemke suggestion that in order to reset our dopamine, we need to go for 30 days without the activity?
Right, I'm suggesting that we can still find benefit, even if it's a short social media fast.
So that's super interesting, because as you know, I picked up the Harvard Business Review when I was traveling home yesterday. And there just happened to be an article about social media detoxes, they called it. And this was taken from a 2021 study that was published in the Journal of technology in behavioral science. And the author was, I don't know how to say his last name, but it's P R. ZYBYLISKI. Andrew, so he actually this was really interesting to me, because I think this goes along so well with, do we need 30 days or is one day off enough? So he and his colleagues, they took 600 undergrads in the US, the UK and Hong Kong, and they looked at what happens if they go one day on social media, and one day off social media. And what they found is that they reported, actually, no evidence of that abstaining from social media for one day had significant positive impacts on psychological well being. Isn't that interesting? It is interesting. So if we're just looking at psychological well, being one day off, social media is not going to necessarily be enough. But we're also talking about what I hear you talking about is connecting with nature, connecting with people, those aren't necessarily the same as mood and overall sense of self. Right?
Absolutely. So it sounded to me like the study indicated that one day on one day off was not effective in helping increase mood. And what we're talking about is we're talking about giving our brain a break, giving our dopamine regulation an opportunity to become more balanced. And recognizing that for those of us who are addicted to social media, who despite really negative consequences in our relationships, we don't seem able to put some kind of parameter around our social media, those people will want to consider a 30 day fast of social media. And it's really terribly difficult in the beginning, because your your brain isn't getting that dopamine dump from the excitement of new and novel things, right. But at the end of 30 days, at the end of 30 days, Dr. Lemke in her book identifies that in all sorts of addictions, the client is able to lower depression, lower anxiety, that they have a better opportunity at self regulation. So that ability to stay in a window of tolerance emotionally. And I just think that even if we don't do the whole shebang, recognizing that we give our brains a rest, when we take a break from social media is still very important. And she does recommend that a day is the smallest amount that you'd want to do.
Well, I think one of the things I'm aware of is that with our clients in the whole health lab, we are always talking about micro steps, and that some progress is better than no progress. And so a one day fast from social media is a great micro step, right? Where as if, if that doesn't really provide a lot of relief, or if a 30 day or even a 14 day seems overwhelming. It's really one day at a time and that goes back to the 12 step principles that are are so dear to me. I have a question, though, that keeps popping up in my head. And I know that you'll be able to build this bridge for the listeners, what the heck does a social media fast have to do with trauma or toxic stress?
What the link here is really in self regulation, when we've had toxic stress, or we've had trauma, our nervous system has a hard time regulating itself internally. And we tend to look externally for ways to regulate. And what that might look like is, oh, I can be happy if only I had the car that I really want. Or if only I had the race, or if my kids would listen to me the first time, then I wouldn't be angry. So what we're looking for, is we're looking for this understanding that everything that we are exposed to has the potential to impact our ability to regulate our emotions, and to operate from a balanced nervous system.
Okay, and I think you've identified it just perfectly that when we have had trauma or toxic stress, we're having a difficult time already with our nervous system regulation. And so we really don't want to add things that are making it more difficult to regulate. We want to work on that internal sense of regulation, as you said, so I think that's perfect. And I love that because sometimes I see trending topics, and in my mind, I know how they relate to trauma or toxic stress. But I think, you know, it's so important that our listeners understand that as well. So thank you for that. Absolutely. Okay, so that is basically what we have for today. Basically, social media one day off is better than no day off. We want to encourage you to absolutely take one day and see how it feels and recognize it might not feel awesome, because if you're resetting your dopamine, sometimes it's a little lower initially. Also recognize that if if it's something that you really struggle with setting limits and boundaries with you may be in need of a longer social media detox, if you will to do a dopamine, dopamine reset, and that those also start with one day. So whether it's one day and you go back to it, or one day becomes two days, it really depends on what your personal situation and struggle is with social media. As we know, social media can be a wonderful place for connection. I love how there's so much psychoeducation within social media these days, I feel like it's really helpful to kind of break down some of the stereotypes and the resistance that people have had to getting mental health care. So I absolutely see the benefit of it. But like all things too much can be problematic. Well, thanks again for joining us and we will see you soon. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you want to go deeper on this subject or any other subjects we've covered in the podcast. We are so excited to be launching our signature membership program at mending trauma.com This is a trauma informed mental health membership where we combine clinically effective practices courses and mentoring while putting you in the driver's seat. We teach you how to heal your trauma with the latest research combining mind body and spirit we want to walk you through a healing journey while also empowering you if you have felt this episode is helpful. We would absolutely love if you would go to Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your pods and give us a review. We'd also love it if you would share it with someone you think it might help tag us on social media at mending trauma.com Or at Amy Hoyt PhD, we would love to reshare and also if there's anything we can do to help we would love to hear from you email info at mending trauma.com Give us your suggestions or topics you want to hear about. We would absolutely love to be of more service to you. We're so excited because we have so many good episodes coming up in season two, and we can't wait to go on this journey with you
