Facebook No More
Well, as of today, my Facebook will be no more. Over 13 years worth of content, numerous rants and raves, and an almost daily deluge of angsty-but-heartfelt posts. Today it comes to an end.
One of the health issues I discovered a few years ago was anxiety attacks. Didn’t even know I was having them until the doctors ruled out everything about my heart, lungs, and brain and came up with the recommendation: “Maybe it’s not your brain, but your mind. We’d like you to see a psychiatrist for a diagnosis of acute anxiety disorder.”
After all the syncope episodes, shortness of breath, and dizziness, we traced it back to a simple issue with uncontrolled anxiety. The more I tried to hold it in, the worse it got. I was originally of the, “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” mindset for this sort of thing. That if I just grinned-and-bore it, then I’d get passed it.
That wasn’t the case.
In fact, it kept getting worse.
So, after some good prescription meds, a good diagnosis, and two years later, I can say that I’ve had exactly two major panic attacks without any loss of consciousness that used to previously follow them.
And what was at the bottom of all this anxiety?
It turns out that spilling all my angst and frustration and outrage in a public-echo-chamber didn’t actually result in an “emotional pressure release” as I attributed to my writing. Instead, it worsened my anxiety by forcing my mind into constant cycles of rumination on fatalistic and cataclysmic thoughts. The outrage was just for show…mostly ;)
My doctor suggested I stop with social media altogether when I first started seeing him; but then we examined some of the positives and we decided that maintaining FB presence would be helpful for me to maintain some sort of contact and communication with those not directly connected to my household.
Thus, I went on these last two years to curb the negative habits of my social media posts. Avoiding the political rants, ignoring trolls, and absolutely not getting into debates with strangers in my feeds. Those are the worse.
I stopped using Facebook last month after I read an article how evil in the world was being spread and perpetuated via social media. Social media was being weaponized and used for psychological warfare and the biggest platform, Facebook, was doing little to curb it. Instead, it took the hands-off approach to inflammatory content when it was from someone who was famous, wealthy, or politically connected. To me, curbing the speech of the everyday citizen is one thing; but refusing to do it for the powers that be was even worse.
So, with that revelation, I decided I was done with Facebook forever.
For the time being, this shall be my blog.
Welcome everyone, hope you stay for a while :)
