Book Recommendation & Addiction Update (Patreon)

I'm pretty suspicious of the "self help" genre. 

I associate it with titles like "Cure Your Cancer in 28 Days with Tomato Purée!" or "Your Life is Miserable: Just become Happy with Doctor Oz!" Those aren't real books, but they sound real don't they?

Nevertheless. I was desperate when I stumbled across Christopher Germer's "The Mindful Path to Self Compassion." Absorbing the techniques from that book, and practicing them regularly? Yeah! I helped myself!

...so when I tell you it took me four years to circle back to "Codependent No More" after a good friend recommended it to me? Well. I didn't believe it would do me any good.

It's kicking my ass, ya'll. Big big big big BIG recommend!

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Today is my 12th day sober.

I'm not an Alcoholic, but absolutely that gene runs in my family, and I've "dabbled" in Alcoholic behavior in the past. 2017 I imposed a "one and done" rule (for myself) and pretty much Alex and I hardly ever buy liquor. I love booze, but it just 'aint worth the liver damage.

When I say I'm 12 days sober, I'm refering to going without Cannabis. I use weed for my Chronic Pain and CPTSD. I'm only going without in April to reset my brain. My tolerance levels were simply too high, and I wasn't getting enough of the benefits.

For fun I'll see how long I last. I'm not addicted to weed either!

...MY ACTUAL addiction is to social media.

To that end I'm only three days into an exit strategy that I'm taking quite seriously:

The withdrawal symptoms were immediate, and if I didn't have apps and techniques that prevented me from constantly checking, circling back, refreshing, checking again? that's what I'd be doing right now.

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My social media withdrawal symptoms:

- Intense anciness

- Feeling invisible

- Frustration

- Cravings not unlike a physical itch

- The uncontrollable need to write this very post for likes and comments

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They haven't started writing self-help books about social media addiction in great numbers yet but that's definitely going to be a thing. 100%

Even though John Lanier is a goddamnwhitemanwithdreadlocks what he says in interviews really shaped my willingness to continually subject myself to Mark Zuckerberg.

...And that's what this really boils down to! I wasn't DOING anything, y'all! I found myself unable to understand why I wasn't actively making progress on my book and other projects. And without answers I just blamed myself, and to sooth that pain I just spent MORE time on platforms like Instagram. It's agonizing to think that—just like the tobacco industry—the creators of these platforms want users to become totally dependent.

The good news is the second I stopped with the social media bullshit I started contacting friends and family, and ACTUALLY socializing.

I started drawing more. I started DOING more things. I'm a complete Spotify convert, I love listening to music and podcasts all day rather than perpetually scrolling (and hurting my hand)

That's it! Thanks for reading! <3