Logged In and Stressed Out: How Social Media is Affecting Your Mental Health and What You Can Do About It

by Paula Durlofsky

Overview

Social media is here to stay, and Logged In and Stressed Out presents the right information and tools to improve our lives through examining and changing our digital habits.

America is facing a mental health crisis. Studies show that the average American is spending more than 10 hours a day in front of their screens, suicide rates are at an all-time high, and mental health professionals are working hard to address social media’s role in this epidemic. Social media can sometimes feel like an unpredictable roller coaster ride. One’s mood can swing from elated after getting a slew of “likes” on a post to worthlessness and deflation in response to being criticized in a comment thread. Too often, bad feelings from social media interactions linger, negatively affecting our off-line lives and worsening already present mental health issues.

Instead of demonizing social media by taking a one-note, “digital detox” approach, Logged In and Stressed Out recognizes social media is not, itself, the problem—it’s how we use it that needs examining. Paula Durlofsky guides readers through its impact on break-ups and infidelities, social distortion and comparison, trauma and triggers, social media binging, depression, anxiety, and other common concerns, using real stories from her own practice to personalize concepts and recommendations.

By setting needed limits and embracing new practices, it is possible to improve mental health when using social media. Durlofsky details the whys and hows of creating a safe digital space, cultivating digital and social media mindfulness, applying the techniques of metalizing while consuming social media, and decreasing social media and digital reactivity. She offers suggestions for how to use social media and digital technology to create meaningful social interactions and positive mental health and provides readers with practical steps to put these ideas into action.

Social media is here to stay, and Logged In and Stressed Out presents the right information and tools to improve our lives through examining and changing our digital habits.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538176290
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/29/2022
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Paula Durlofsky, PhD is a licensed psychologist with a private practice in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. As a practicing therapist for over 18 years and the recent winner of Best Therapist in 2017’s Best of the Main Line awards, Durlofsky helps individuals, couples, and families to reach their full potential for leading lives with passion and purpose. Durlofsky is a member of the American Psychological Association’s Device Management and Digital Intelligence committee whose goal is to support healthy relationships with technology through intelligent engagement and modeling positive digital citizenship. She is also affiliated with Bryn Mawr Hospital, Lankenau Medical Center and The Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. Over the course of her career, she has taught as an adjunct professor and as an instructor to medical residents specializing in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry. She has even been immortalized as the inspiration for the character Dr. Paula Agard on the popular USA Network show, Suits. Her expert opinions based on over two decades of clinical experience and training have been featured in Marie Claire, Teen Vogue, APA’s Monitor on Psychology, Exceptional Parenting Magazine, Main Line Health, Psych Central, and Main Line Today, as well as at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women and on ABC 10-KXTV.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Building Relationships in the Digital Age 5

2 Screen Attachments 19

3 The Distorted Mirror 35

4 Substance Abuse, Depression, Body Image, and the Importance of Social Media Literacy 51

5 Breaking Up in the Digital Age 73

6 Medicating with Technology 89

7 A Call for Self-Compassion in the Digital Age 105

8 Finding Your E-Tribe 121

9 Balancing the Virtual and the Actual Life 139

Notes 153

Selected Bibliography 165

Index 173

About the Author 181

Editorial Reviews

In this empathetic manual, Pennsylvania-based mental health counselor Durlofsky shares parables about patients whose lives have been affected by over-involvement with social media. .. Maintaining a sympathetic tone, she offers lists of helpful strategies for dealing with adverse emotions, unhealthy relationships, FOMO, and hurtful comparisons—amounting to practical actions applicable to both in-person and virtual situations that go beyond simple exhortations to disconnect. Additional chapters deal with romantic break-ups, mourning, emotional pain, and the dangers of using technology as avoidance medication. Her major take-aways ring true, no matter what arena: develop self-compassion, practice self-care, find your "e-tribe," and try to achieve balance. Readers may have heard these suggestions before, but the specific spin, addressing digital dependency, makes the advice timely and fresh.

Booklist

11/09/2020

Psychologist Durlofsky debuts with an empowering take on the impact of social media on mental heatlh. If people are mindful about their expectations, she argues, and focus on the benefits of one’s online life to real-life friendships, social media can actually help change “behaviors, attitudes, and personalities” for the better. Through short case studies, Durlofsky provides examples of how social media can help with building new relationships, healing from breakups, and finding support while struggling with issues like substance abuse or depression. Durlofsky’s skill-building strategies at the end of each chapter—avoid absolute statements, take up mindfulness meditation, enjoy time alone—form the core of her advice for helping readers to create meaningful social interactions. In addition to guidance on online behavior, Durlofsky provides real-life practices based in tenets of relational psychology; a particularly illuminating section covers the “eight developmental crises” each person must make it through in life, and argues that, during the “digital age,” the “love versus isolation” phase during one’s teenage years has become a watershed moment of “developing the skills for establishing and forming lifelong intimate relations.” Durlofsky’s practical work will provide insight to any reader looking to creating a safe, healthy digital space. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly