if I wanted to be this is flipping the coin if I wanted to be really really stressed and really really anxious right and I wanted maybe B throwing some depression I if I wanted Stress and Anxiety how should I live that's a great question get on your phone make sure it's on high brightness and scroll through every social media platform every news platform watch graphic content of videos of horrible terrible things happening in the world at midnight keep doing that off and on until 4: 5 a.m. your cortisol Spike usually happens around 6:00 a.m. um you know give or take for people that cortisol spike is a natural thing that happens it's part of your circadian rhythm it's what prompts you to get up out of bed um of course make sure that you are you know you check your phone right away right when you get up out of bed and continue scrolling um this is a really fun exercise of what not to do rather than what to do um it doesn't always happen in like it won't be one day because you do have some reserves but if you did this for one month I would say instead of like one day let's do it for one month yeah 30 days 30-day plan to maximize anxiety and stress I want to talk about social media and in your book you use this term popcorn brain which I for a second when I read what popcorn brain meant started to think maybe I now have a popcorn brain what is a popcorn brain many people most people have popcorn brain popcorn brain is a biological phenomenon a real biological phenomenon coined by a man named Dr Levy a psychologist and it is essentially your brain circuitry starting to pop based on over stimulation so it's not like your brain is actually popping but it's that sensation of Pop Corning because of spending too much time online it is hard to disengage from what's Happening online because there's a constant information stream and it is difficult to live fully offline where life moves at a decidedly slower Pace popcorn brain is an Affliction that nearly every single person has right now think about what you do when you're waiting in line at the grocery store you're not just like letting your brain wander pondering things you are on your phone what are you doing at the bank on your phone at a car wash at a traffic light pedestrians walking across the street they're not looking up at the light in fact it's like one of the hazards a public health hazard of you know pedestrians having near Miss accidents because they're looking down on your phone I see it in Boston all the time a busy street and people are looking at their phone most people listening now will be like on a tube somewhere on a train on a plane looking at their phone while they're listening to this but we rarely give our brains a moment of rest so popcorn brain is different a lot of people will ask me is popcorn brain internet addiction no internet addiction is a real it's called internet addiction disorder it's a DS sm4 criteria and it means that's our diagnostic criteria in um medicine and it's a real disorder but what really defines internet addiction and popcorn brain is that internet addiction interferes with your life where you're unable to do certain things popcorn brain on the other hand is ubiquitous it's everywhere it is what defines Modern Life those two are very different things and when we are feeling a sense of stress we are especially prone to popcorn brain why because when we feel stress we talked about the amydala right like that part of our brain that is focused on survival and self-preservation back evolutionarily when we were all cave people there was a night watch person and and that person would sit by the fire the tribe would sleep and that person would scan for danger to keep the tribe safe in modern times we have all become that night watch person and we scroll incessantly when we feel a sense of stress because it is our Primal urge it is the way our amydala feels a sense of safety because we are scanning for danger we are no longer in a tribe we're not cave people anymore so what do we do we scroll that is how we are scanning for danger especially when we are feeling stressed in recent times there's been a lot of bad news in fact it feels like the onslaught of bad news one thing after another whether it's a climate disaster or a conflict in a certain part of the world or something or the other is always happening now the information stream it is rapid and unprecedented and so we are constantly scrolling and scanning for danger and it's that Primal urge to scroll so how do we the goal is is really not to limit our social media use or media use because we know Studies have shown that it is not about abstinence because that actually doesn't have an impact a positive impact on our mental health or our well-being but what does have an impact on our mental health and well-being is decreasing our Reliance to our phones you know most of us check our phones 2,600 times a day that is a statistic 2,617 times a day is the average number of times a person looks at their phone think about that right the other thing you want to think about is when you're thinking about like huh do I am I do I have a Reliance on my phone it's like the goal here is to reconsider your relationship with your phone it is not about abstinence we're not trying to become digital monks here it's about creating digital boundaries in every relationship in your life you have boundaries you have a boundary with your your partner with your children with your colleagues because relationships need boundaries right to thrive why don't we have a boundary when it comes to the relationship we have with our phone there is no boundary it is simply porous we check in the morning we check at night what's the first thing you do when you wake up before your second eye is even open you are scrolling studies show that 62% of people check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up and about 50% check them in the middle middle of the night I'm guilty of this like I'm not going to pretend I'm some Satan here I'm that person I'm on on the upper end of that scale I'm glued to my phone glued to my phone and you know what when I'm stressed I'm even more glued to it so we talked about popcorn brain and that's what happens when we spend too much times on too much time on our phone there is also this concept of brain drain what happens to us and our brain power even when our phone is close by but not in you use because of the sheer potential for distraction so our phones are really powerful they are not benign devices one antidote to popcorn brain and to brain drain is a media diet and there are really three ways that you can instill this media diet into your life to help with your Primal urra scroll the first is time limits 20 minutes a day and set a timer if you have to for engaging and consuming bad news the second is geographical limits during the day keep your phone 10t away from your workstation if if you can Out Of Reach Out of Arms Reach and at night off your nightstand keeping your phone off your nightstand could be the biggest game Cher because in the morning when you wake up like most people checking their phone instead you aren't just scrolling you're getting up maybe brushing your teeth using the bathroom and then you can engage with technology but that one small small shift could be key and the third is to set some logistical limits so creating some sort of boundary in a Digital Boundary could make all of the difference in your relationship with your phone thereby improving your stress and mental health there's a lot going on in the world right now there's a lot of bad news there is Wars there is I mean in the whole sort of two decades that I've been on the internet social media I have never lived through a moment maybe the pandemic was somewhat similar but I think this is maybe even more extreme where I go on my Instagram and I see videos and photos of dead babies not that far away from where we are in Europe relatively and there's a there's a sort of trauma involved in that so much so that the other day I walked into the uh into my kitchen and my partner was sat there and she's just crying and she's looking at her phone and she's crying and you know I put some things on her phone just to make sure that she wouldn't accidentally stumble across those things again and then the next day we had the same situation happen while she was in the kitchen and she was very very upset she was again tears coming down her face she's like struggling with it for multiple days in a row and it just made me think that's an extreme example but yeah I mean like it's not an extreme example I had the same thing happen to me I knew all the I know all the science and yet I was also weeping and I think many people are feeling exactly like your girlfriend and the science supports this you know we're experiencing in many ways it's like the cycle of trauma and a researcher who I spoke to from my book roxan silver who is a psychologist in California has shown through multiple studies that your risk of PTSD increases when you consume graphic images even if that thing that you're consuming is happening thousands of miles away like the wall like any conflict any climate disaster anything if you start consuming graphic images and videos you increase your risk of PTSD your own personal risk even though you have not had any direct trauma because it's indirect trauma that you're seeing and so it's a cycle the more videos you consume or the more graphic content you consume your amydala gets fired your Primal urge to scroll starts going haywire and then you scroll some more and then you scroll some more because you don't feel safe you don't you know so this is a common occurrence it is not uncommon it is your biology working as it should because it is your biology of stress and clickbait and doom scrolling are both powered by the same biology that governs the fight ORF flight response and there is actual data to show that it increases your risk of PTSD and increases your risk of getting mental health conditions later in life so years later when I think about all the things that are going on in the world I'm conflicted right because you can't ignore those things but at the same time those things are giving you PTSD that's right well the key is and I work in journalism I'm a medical correspondent it's not about censorship being an informed citizen is critical at all times especially now you have to be an informed citizen but you have to create some digital boundaries so you're protecting your sanity and protecting your mental health there are also other ways that you can get involved d by supporting various causes and donating and taking action we know that that is also very helpful but you want to limit your engagement with graphic content you can also limit your engagement with looking at videos and looking at images and instead read about it right like follow certain accounts that you trust and read about what's happening in the world it is not about censorship because the news and journalism and I am speaking from the the perspective of being a journalist or correspondent it's vital it's vital to democracy it's vital to functioning Society but there has to be a line between being an informed Citizen and protecting our mental health and our sanity and understanding that if you are having difficulty sleeping if you notice any alarm signs like mood disorders if you're having an uptick in anxiety depressive thoughts thoughts of hurting yourself hurting others that you should seek counseling and seek medical attention because these are not benign thoughts like you you know it's very easy to say oh but it's happening far away I shouldn't be feeling like this don't sh yourself right instead seek the help because this data shows that you are at risk if you are overc consuming there is a fine line between consuming and overc consuming the news at any time especially now but 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