Addiction Counselling London
Central London, Camden, Kings Cross, London NW1
Glen Gibson - Dip. Counselling, MA Psychotherapy, Dip. Psychotherapy
UKCP & mBACP Accredited Male Addiction Counsellor & Psychotherapist

Social Media Addiction Counselling London

Social media makes it easier for us to reach out, connect and maintain contact with others, stay in touch at a distance, join in, promote community, share humanity, be part of social groups, share news, information quickly (and even cave men and women posted things on each other's walls). Social media enables us to tell our story, get support, can put us in touch with what's happening in the world. Social media can cheer us up, be supportive and has the advantage of bringing people together into interest groups. Social media can offer access to ordinary people, philosophers, activists, influencers, who in their own words share their thoughts and feelings. We can seek others out, interact with others, give, and receive support from friends, be part of something, create or join our own "tribes". We may only interact, relate on the surface. We may have turned to blogs or social networking as a distraction or to get away from other problems. Social media fosters self-expression and important as engaging with social media is for us, we may have a sense of shallowness and need depth, meaningful and intimate relationships offline. We may be sacrificing all the benefits of close and physical connection, the spoken word for the written word. Focusing on the image we want to project to others, settling for superficial relationships or to prove we are worthy of love, we may have increased the number of online "friends", be "connected" - some of whom we've never met, letting our guard down and exchanging intimate information, yet avoiding intimacy being real with people closest to us. (And it may be important to remind ourself that what we see in social media is not necessary real and could be gossip, rumour.) Fear of missing out - FOMO can be a huge driving force for our social media obsession. Fear of switching off (FOSO) if we are not connected to social media, that we will miss daily events, or are not currently informed, may impact on us. And a lot of what we digest may even be fabricated, misleading (see also Impact Of AI, Artificial Intelligence). Leaving behind a digital legacy can be problematic for some. Counselling can explore what all this means for us. Social media can be a platform for outrage, create dramas and some are designed to pull us in with an addictive quality. We ay overlook the impact of biased algorithms, marketing-led information and advertising pop-ups, fake news, false news, propaganda, myths, unreliable information, misinformation - incorrect, inaccurate, false information or disinformation through innuendo, rumour and false narratives, claims. Fact-checking, processing the information, filtering apparent truth from real truth - being discerning, may therefore be important. We may need to remind ourselves we only see people's versions of themselves - the narrative they want to show on the outside and despite lack of reliable evidence, everyone has their own insecurities, uncertainties, anxieties, similar yet different to our own. We may have a social media compulsion and find it difficult to take a pause, reflect, discern and discriminate unrealistic views of people's lives, monitor our emotions, establish personal contact through rounded, textured relationships including real, intimate, sexual ones, so these real life encounters don't undermine our online world and stop us fully living a rounded life.

Impact Of What We Reveal & What We Read In certain relating states, we can share our thoughts, emotions, what we are doing with others close to us with people we don't even know (or think we know), receive feedback, make connections. Some may not take care in what we say, maybe become disinhibited. Words sent and received can have very different meanings, emphasis for the sender, receiver, and become easily misinterpreted. Sometimes using emojis ☺ may be a direct, simple way of stating how we feel. For some, our curiosity and interest in social media can get out of hand, we may struggle to take responsibility for the impact of what we say (see also Over-Talking, Floodlighting, Oversharing - Balance Between Withholding Or Sharing All Our Thoughts, Over-Talking, Oversharing, Floodlighting - Whether Or Not To Share Our Feelings). Becoming disinhibited at times, especially if flirting, we may end up sending ill-thought messages, images, yet later regret this. Social media abuse and cyber bullying may take place alongside disinhibiting behaviours, lacking any restraint, when we assume a fake identity, pretending to be someone else online - catfishing. Records of images, what is said, can be quite hard to remove, change or withdraw. Things said can amplify and be incendiary. Moderation through technology can only go so far in limiting harm and can miss nuances. Regulating and supervising algorithms, so they don't incentivise human damage, may be important. Some of us may overlook the fact that many social media sites, social media apps, are owned by large corporations, who carry out surveillance, or that anonymity is not always so. (And individuals themselves can hide behind anonymity, say what they want, regardless of the consequences) - see also Internet Accuracy, Security, Online Safety, Privacy & Computer Usage. Defenders of free speech can argue neutrality. Mindless scrolling can be a habit for some. We can go down deep or morbid rabbit holes, that can even affect the quality of our sleep. Conspiracy theories can take off as can people's insecurities, greed, bullying. If we are not careful we can end up doomscrolling - obsessively checking on social media feeds - ingesting lots of news, often bad. It can help us to remember we have choice in who we do and don't "follow" alongside the content we engage in and be mindful of how it makes us feel with certain social media content, utilising aspects of critical thinking, checking if what we hear, read, is objectively true, thinking before we act. It may be important for us to manage social media, so it enhances our life, never diminishing it in negative ways.

Social Media Obsession Feeling pangs inside, some of us may constantly look up, check what others are doing, who they are seeing, what they are up to. It can be as if we have a need for instant gratification. Finding it hard to resist looking, searching - translating things based on our own insecurities, we may find out things we didn't want to find out, see things we would not rather see, interpreting things, words, images with our own narrative. Some of us may be obsessed with social media, yet inside feel lonely, empty, looking how other people are doing with their highly, carefully selected persona selective images of their best side, the upbeat joyous life they portray (or betray), "usually happier" lives with "more or better friends", etc. (and often unfavourably comparing us with others). What people show on social media are a narrow, edited versions of themselves - surface evidence. (This may promote impostor syndrome in us.) We may overlook that people curate snapshots of themselves in how they want to be seen. Intent of being "followed" - keeping score, and "following" others, we may overlook following our own path, heart. We may collect, be attached to our "likes", "friends" as trophies and this may be linked to our early attachment dynamics when we grew up. Insie we may feel isolated, empty, lonely, living a life lacking meaning, real connection. Tempted to put on a performance, we may become competitive. Envy and jealousy may creep in if we and others promote an online distorted or disguised, almost fantasy version of ourselves, falsifying our beliefs. Lacking the full attention, feedback, responses that others get, we may unfavourably compare ourselves with others and can become adversely affected when others ghost us - suddenly disappear. We may be obsessing about others (including past lovers, current partners of our ex) - lurking, similar too cyber-stalking others online. Forever checking up on others online can be as if we have a social media addiction, unable to stop. Worrying what others think about us, our social media addiction can end up eroding our self-worth. We may feel like we are missing out on something interesting, better or more exciting, and the more we look into what other people are up to, the more wounded we may become and we may beat ourself up. Like a drug, continuously searching for something, some of us may focus our attention so much onto what others are doing that we may overlook, be out of touch with how we are, as if something is missing in us, as our attention span diminishes. We may need a lot of attention, approval, recognition, validation, appreciation yet struggle to give these to ourselves, be present, enjoying the here and now. Increasing our social network in cyber space we may have decreased our social networking offline. Struggling to take downtime, things may have become out of balance. Popular online, we may experience hollowness, unfulfillment, emptiness, isolation, loneliness or alienation, a gap inside as if our real feelings are ignored. Our connection with nature, other interests, may have dwindled. We may have what some call social media addiction, social network addiction. (See also Online Chat Addiction, Text Chat Room Addiction & Internet Dating Addiction Counselling London)

Social Media Addiction Side Effects Switching on our devices we may end up switching off inside, blocking things out, shutting things down. Overthinking, when online, we may also lack restraint or the ability to filter what's relevant, as if our urges or search for an immediate quick fix have to be followed or that what people say has to be believed (some of us may live in a world largely of small talk). We may be worried about the amount of time we spend on social media sites or blogging, maybe even hiding this from others. We may make vague promises to cut down one day, yet wonder how else we will fill our time. Freeing up our life again, emotionally connecting with ourself creating space and quiet time, taking pauses for observation, reflection may be important. For some, continuously going on to social media sites may affect our off-line emotional relationships or indeed our work or body image. Impoverished inside, other things important to us may have been neglected. Bored inside we may turn to social media which after a while may compound our boredom. We may not only have started to neglect ourself, but also our relationship and our social skills, contact with nature. Bombarding ourself with information, we may struggle to get away from the "noise" and give ourself a mental break, time for reflection. We may have become too dependent on scrolling social media (and its addictive content), that our sleeping habits, diet, and exercise may also be affected. Our short-term memory may also suffer. When it gets to this stage, it can be as if we have become a social media addict or social networks addict, spending more and more time in the virtual world, less and less time in the real world. Our online social media addiction and blog addiction for some may be linked with our shyness. So when online, we can feel re-affirmed. Yet we can be obsessively immersed in social media, struggling to put our social media usage into proportion, some of us may begin to live in a more fantasy world or get caught in spiteful or malicious discussion. If we become overly preoccupied or addicted to social media our moods may rise and dip, dependent on our social media usage. Taking regular digital detoxes, disconnecting regularly, reducing and setting specific online times, screen times, protecting our minds and hearts, may support us taking charge of our life through self-regulation.

Ironically, in spite of all our digital social media connections, we may feel validated, yet feel unrecognised, have a nagging sense of loneliness, isolation, emptiness or alienation and have diluted our other communication skills. We don't want to continue with it, yet we do. This may point to our compulsive need to connect, which may be explored in the social media addiction therapy. Preoccupied on a social media treadmill, we may prioritise using social media forgetting other important things in our life, including our sleep, and also procrastinate. We may struggle concentrate. Driven by the noise of social media and what happens in there, we may overlook who is driving. We may have sacrificed real-life interactions. Depending on situations we may want to determine whether verbal or digital communication (which can lead to frustration, misunderstandings) is more effective, meaningful. Using social media as a distraction especially if we get caught in meaningless conversations we may have distracted from the physical world and nature, our health may suffer, alongside our groundedness, being in tune with all our senses, e.g. touch, smell, etc. and having other structures in place, away from social media. Out of control or obsessive at times, losing our boundaries, showing signs of being a social media addict, having a social media addiction we may want to address this in the social media addiction counselling. Viewing life through the lens of social media affect our moods, life and if it is to our detriment, we may want to become more active than passive about our usage so we lessen any unhelpful impact and gain a more positive, generous outlook on life - pay more attention to the world round us. (On a practical level, filtering our notification settings, not reacting until we are good and ready may act as a boundary and picking up the phone sometimes, having real conversations may help us engage differently. Others may want to consider taking a social media detox for a few months - stopping/restricting our access, as we manage, overcome our social media obsession. We may have a sense of more time, experience peace of mind.) Alongside discovering, re-discovering other day to day activities, this may mean exploring any underlying triggers for turning to our social media obsession. These may include feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, boredom, the unconscious behaviour and benefits of what's in it for us and the conscious behaviour and reflection of what we value, the people we value (see also Connecting With, Being In Touch With Supportive Others - Building A Network & Circle Of People Around Us).

Social Networking Marketing On a practical level social networking can help us connect and plan to meet others. Yet networking and marketing through social media we may struggle to know what and when is enough. Immersed into social media marketing, networking, spending an inordinate amount of time, resources and we may have developed a social media obsession, social marketing addiction.

Blog Obsession, Blog Addiction Some of us enjoy blogging for the simple pleasure of it. Blogs can also give a sense of importance and identity - to be somebody. We can be part of something. Yet we may show signs of being a blogging addict. Some of us may not know what is enough blogging and when to stop. We may have developed a blog obsession, be called a blog addict or have a blog addiction. Addiction counselling can offer support in overcoming this.

Counselling Questions Regarding Blog Addiction, Social Network Addiction We may have some questions about blog obsession, being a blog addict, blog addiction, addiction to social networking, social media, e.g.:

• Blog addict - am I a blog addict?
• Blog addiction - I have a blog obsession, is there such a thing as blog addiction?
• Blogs addiction - how harmful is addiction to blogs?
• Social networks addiction - is there such a thing as social networking addiction?
• Addiction to social networking - how harmful is social networking addiction, being a social networking addict?
• Does social media addiction exist?
• Am I a social media addict?
• Social media obsession - do I have a social media addiction?

Range Of Unhelpful Habits, Distractions, Addictions Counselling London

Alcohol Problem

• Binge drinking, alcohol problem, alcoholism, alcohol addiction, being an alcoholic

Internet, Computer, Technology & Communication "Addiction"

• Sex Addiction - Pornography Problem, Porn Addiction, Online Sex, Internet Sex & Cybersex Addiction, Masturbation Addiction
• Online Chat Addiction, Text Chat Room Addiction & Internet Dating Addiction Counselling London
• Technology Addiction & Gadget Addiction Counselling London
• Internet Overuse, Internet Addiction & Computer Addiction
• Mobile Addiction Counselling In London, Email, Text, Telephone Addiction, Nomophobia
• Social Media Addiction Counselling London
• Addicted To Games - Computer Games Addiction, Online Games Addiction, Video Game Addiction & Computer Gaming Addiction Help

Other Obsessions, Compulsions Or "Addictions"

• Stress Eating, Emotional Eating, Comfort Eating, Binge Eating Help, Compulsive Eating Counselling, Food Addiction Therapy
• Fitness, Gym & Exercise Addiction
• Compulsive Shopping, Compulsive Spending, Shopping Addiction & Shopaholism - Shopaholics, Shopping Addicts, Addicted To Buying, Online Auction Addiction, Credit Card Addiction
• Gambling Problems, Compulsive Gambling, Online Gambling Addiction
• Money Obsessed - Addicted To Money, Money Addiction, Money Obsession, Trading Addiction, Counselling London
• Work-Life Balance, Workaholism, Addicted To Work & Work Addiction
• Busyness addiction, addiction to activities
• Worry addiction
• Perfectionism Counselling London
• Addicted to beauty, glamour
• Approval addiction
• Addicted to self criticism, self-blame
• Addiction to fixing others, addicted to pleasing others
• Romance addiction, love addiction, serial yet uncommitted relationships, addiction to conflict, bad relationships
• Addictive Element To Certain Attachment Styles
• Caretaking, codependency
• Emotional affairs, limerence
• Emotional addiction
• Addiction to talking
• Addicted to gossip
• Addicted to dramas
• Addicted to anger
• Addiction to shame, self-blame
• Addiction to pain, suffering
• Addicted to sleep
• Procrastination
• Clutter, messiness
• Addiction to spirituality
• Addicted to meditation
• Religious Activities - Obsession With Religion, Religious Addiction

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