Struggling with Anxiety: My Journey Through Stressful Situations
I frequently experienced stomachaches at school, particularly during stressful times like important exams or when I felt like I wasn’t performing well in a subject. The stomach problems persisted despite my mom’s best efforts to persuade me that grades weren’t everything. I also had to watch how much fun I could have in a single day. After visiting Holiday World, I once recall spending the night at a friend’s place. It all felt like too much, even though I was having a great time, so I asked my mom to come get me. We didn’t have a diagnosis at the time. I was overstimulated, according to my mother. I realize now that I have anxiety!
Recognizing My Triggers as an Adult
Even as an adult, I still quickly become overstimulated, but I am aware of my boundaries and triggers. My loved ones are also very understanding and make an effort to keep me away from my triggers. For instance, when it’s time for me to buy a new car, my husband will choose one, let me test drive it, and then trade it in for my current vehicle because he understands how stressful the process is for me. That may seem strange to some, but it’s a huge comfort to me!
Politics: A Major Anxiety Trigger
Politics is one thing that truly makes me anxious. I have to leave if I’m there with CNN or Fox News playing in the background. For me, it’s simply too much. Additionally, I deleted all the news apps that continuously provide political updates and warnings. Thank you. I can’t stand seeing adorable pictures of dogs and babies on social media and then being interrupted by political drama. And believe me, there is a lot of drama everywhere, regardless of who you voted for. In addition, I never stick my head in a hole and never stop breathing. I simply prefer to read things from reliable sources rather than the tabloids on social media.
Silencing Political Content on Social Media for Peace of Mind
I therefore made the decision to turn off—or at least reduce—the political content on my social media accounts in order to preserve my mental health. This is how I went about it.
Facebook: First, let’s talk about the major one. Algorithms on social media act as an intangible mirror, reflecting you back to yourself. Simply hovering over a post for a few seconds or examining a photo is sufficient for the algorithm to notice and provide you with more content; you don’t even need to like or comment on it. When you combine voice activation and cookies, it gathers even more information about your activities in order to customize advertisements and content for you. Facebook allowed you to “silence” specific words back in 2018, however that option has already been taken off. Thankfully, some control can still be regained. It is still possible to disassociate yourself from a post that you would prefer not to see.
- If you want to filter out content, click the three dots on a Facebook post and select Show Less (of posts like this).
- You can also Hide Post and also make it less desireable to the algorithm and it turn it will show it to fewer people.
- Snooze profile for 30 days – if a person or page is really ramping up their political chatter and you need a break, just snooze them.
- Hide all from profile – You’ll stop seeing posts but remain friends.
- Unfollow page – you’ll stop getting content from the page.
TikTok: This is a simple one.
- Click the three bars at the top right of the screen.
- Settings and privacy
- Content preferences
- Filter video words
- Enter in the words you need to snooze.
Twitter/X:
- Click your profile photo
- Settings and privacy
- Privacy and safety
- Content you see
- Mute and block
- Muted words
- Enter in the words you need to snooze. Heads up, it will only block the words as they appear so make sure you include the plural, the possessive, the misspellings, the slang, and every other variation you can think of.
Instagram: You can hide or report a post by clicking the three dots, much like on Facebook. This will modify your algorithm and reduce the post’s value, preventing others from seeing it. (Just so you know, engaging with it, even negatively, increases its value.)
You can change your settings as well.
- Next to your photo, click the three little lines.
- From there you can go into Restricted – from here you can “take a break” from a person or a page.
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You can also go to Hidden Words
- and Manage custom words and phrases
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You can also go to Settings and Privacy
- Suggested Content
- Political Content or turn off a word
- See Less
- and Manage custom words and phrases
- Suggested Content
- Political Content or turn off a word
- See Less
Is It Wrong to Filter Your Social Media?
I stand by my choice to put my mental health first, even if I am aware that some people may feel it is improper to exclude some terms, names, or viewpoints. And to be honest, you might be the issue if you’re allowing false information from publications or phony memes to influence your political beliefs. I’m not sorry.
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