TUYT 57

Amy Hoyt14min

Amy Hoyt

00:00

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

Leina Hoyt, MFT, MA

01:17

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.

Amy Hoyt

02:55

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.

Leina Hoyt, MFT, MA

05:08

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.

Amy Hoyt

05:48

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?

Leina Hoyt, MFT, MA

06:04

Right, I'm suggesting that we can still find benefit, even if it's a short social media fast.

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