Your Mental Health Will Thank You For Doing This Detox Based on Netflix’s ‘The Social Dilemma’

Not gonna lie, The Social Dilemma doc on Netflix TERRIFIED me.

As they say in the film, social media is both a utopia and dystopia at the very same time. While much of the scary shit associated with it’s usage and the data being collected by it is out of our direct control (unless you run a tech company!) we can try to create better habits that protect our mental health- and do our best to harness the wonderful aspects of social media in a year that has moved us even more online than ever.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, the content of our social media timelines seeps into the deep dark reaches of our brains. I love Instagram. I know I spend too much time on it that I could be writing or reading or on the phone with a long distance friend, and that it gives me a sometimes false sense of connection. But I actually do feel that it’s an amazing tool for connection (as long as it’s not our only one), for education, for activism- (and, tbh, lurking on TikTok has been a serious mood lifter throughout quarantine) but it’s equally fantastic at breeding insecurity, spreading false information and convincing our brains that “normal” is poreless, cellulite-less, roll-less, well-lit perfection 24/7. I know I sound like a broken record, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to make sure your feed is not only diverse, but real- and that includes any news you’re consuming on social media too.

You probably know my feelings on the word “detox” by now. While it’s a big part of a lot of eastern medicine practices and rituals, it’s been coopted by the modern wellness and diet industry as a rigid, restrictive, disordered practice. Here’s all you need to know- if taking out foods that don’t make you feel your best works for you, great! If you’re setting a harsh rule, removing entire GROUPS of food, and developing anxiety around it, prrrrobably not healthy. PLUS, your liver is expertly, magically designed to detox the bad stuff without depriving yourself. The idea of eliminating toxic energy, however, is a GREAT IDEA.

How to detox your social media for your mental health

1) Hold yourself accountable by only creating content that’s authentic.

I love me a color scheme to complete a branded look- but when you’re adjusting images to the point where the actual human isn’t recognizable- you can’t see pimples or stretch marks or fine lines (don’t even get me started on Facetuning proportions) your brain (and those of your followers) thinks those images are natural, and starts to feel shame for falling short. Even if you think you’re capable of telling the difference, you’re not.

2) Put your feed on an “elimination diet”.

Unfollow all the triggering creators who don’t add value (or at the very least muting, if unfollowing causes more stress and follow people out there sharing their real selves in your life). Bonus points for muting ALL notifications from every app on your phone to encourage spending less time on it in general! Chances are you won’t miss anything dire, but you will find valuable time back in your day. I even went so far as deleting every single app I don’t use on a regular basis, ex: living upstate I don’t need Uber, Via, Lyft, Seamless, Uber Eats, Caviar, Postmates, MindBody, ZocDoc etc- it’s so easy to re-download when you need something, think about what ACTUALLY needs to be immediately accessible. Decide how much time you feel good about spending on social media a day, set your screen-time allowance and actually listen to it! Just like with food; rigidity and restriction is unsustainable and unhealthy- so pick an amount of time that you can actually manage, and don’t beat yourself up when you inevitably indulge. Just start again.

3) Follow people who look different from you, have different backgrounds, with different opinions and this is key: engage with their content.

and step three is following others out there sharing their real selvesYour feed isn’t going to be diverse and inclusive or expose you to different ideas all on it’s own- in fact, it’s designed NOT to. You are responsible for teaching the algorithm what you want to see- even if it initially makes you uncomfortable. This is the easiest thing you can do for your future self in terms of implicit bias towards body size and even race.

In the beginning of my eating disorder recovery- I consciously sought out accounts that talked about intuitive eating and body appreciation because that’s what I knew I needed to be exposed to more regularly. This inevitably meant opening up my feed to people who looked different than me. With the embarrassing amount of time I spend mindlessly scrolling, when my feed looked exclusively like supermodels and prima ballerinas and “fitspo” my lizard brain was absorbing the idea that those bodies were the definition of beauty, and that anything else was failure and laziness- and the algorithm learned that that was all I was interested in seeing.

As I moved through my recovery, and started being more gentle and compassionate towards myself, my judgement of other people’s bodies also started to fade away. While I still have an inner bully critiquing my own reflection from time to time (I am human, after all), I can honestly say I don’t feel critical of other people’s bodies. The saying is true, if you feel intense judgement about someone else, it’s usually a projection of something you haven’t accepted in yourself. In this respect, healing your own body image issues is actually community healing.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few creators who immediately popped to mind when I sat down to write this- if you have suggestions, I’d love for you to email them to me at hi@helenphelanstudio.com and I’ll add them to the list (and who I’m following online!).

Badass, Anti-Diet, Body Positive/Neutral Influencers To Add In Post-Detox

@ohhhhhhhhhoney

@thiscurvyworld

@Thebirdspapaya

@freckledfoodie

@dietiticananna

@thenutritiontea

@chr1styharrison

@laurenleavellfitness

@rebeccascritchfield

@sundaymorningview

@mynameisjessamyn

@shrinkchicks

@tiffanyima

@wellwitholi

@feelgooddietician

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