Navigating Social Circles and Mental Health

I get it. I’ve been paranoid about privacy and surveillance since the late 2000’s. It does get overwhelming sometimes and the main contributors are politicians, all of them! We’re trying to protect ourselves but it seems that Federal and State Governments don’t want to take the time to write laws that protect us! It’s infuriating that they get a salary to write legislation to protect themselves but can’t for us. I’ve had probably 40-50 data breaches and one with my Social Security number on a vendor I never heard of! So, yes, I get it. I remember a time pre 9/11 that much of these pressures didn’t exist. Before cell phones. Even before the internet. Not any of this existed. No worries of surveillance. No worries of data breaches. No worries of politicians sending agencies to put you in some FEMA camp. At some point I had to stand up and scream “STOP.” And it dawned on me. I was voluntary participating in this. When things were simpler, I remember when the internet was just a thing. When you had to put disks in your computer to get anything on it. The only “service” or social media was dial-up AOL. They marketed the internet as “revolutionary” and “time saving” because you didn’t have to write a check to pay bills. You didn’t have to go to the bank because you didn’t know your balance. How all these things would give you more time. Time for yourself, family, friends, life. It delivered. It was time saving. Very convenient. The only problem is that so many other “duties” were piling up so we used that “extra time” and just jammed more crap to do in it, which didn’t help get things done, it just made us more stressed. The more frustrated we were, the less we had patience for any added things we had to do. The more things we had to do, the more we just downloaded an app to handle it. Forget reading a privacy policy. I did not have time for that too! Instead of going to people’s houses and just stopping by, we endlessly text or video chatted. I hope you can see where I’m going with this. It’s time for you to sit down and have a talk with yourself. Decide what really matters to YOU in life. What things you HAVE TO do, and what things you WANT TO do. Make a list on paper. That helps me to get crap out of my head so I can see it. It makes a difference. If I think too much without seeing or hearing it, I have no idea if it’s ridiculous or not. Make the list. Put your have to’s in your daily schedule. There’s only 4 things we really need to survive. Food, water, shelter, and at least clothes to keep us warm and not get arrested. The rest are wants. All of them! Read that again! Put work on the list if you don’t already have an income. Work is number one because, no money, no providing for your needs. Food and water breaks. You have to live somewhere. Do some basics for a while and you’ll start to notice without all the noise, you’re calmer, more peaceful. Watch TV. Keep it simple. Nothing that puts you on the edge. DON’T listen to politics. Don’t watch the news. Add things in one at a time and notice how it affects you. If it makes you crazy, dump it! If you’re on a computer or phone, read the privacy policy and decide if that convenience is worth your sanity. They’ll be a few things you’ll need but protect yourself with the privacy protections you know will help. Opt out of things you can but take the time that you’ve opened up to read an apps terms. Don’t download a ton of them. Use their websites instead of the apps so it doesnt track you every second. If you trim down all these things and add the wants slowly, you’ll soon find out how wonderful it feels to not be stressed out and you’ll be happy to preserve it. It’s not an option for me anymore to be so stressed out that I’m a lunatic. A happy, peaceful person is a joy to be around cause they make people feel good instead of stressed. This is coming from a person that was on my phone for 12-14 hours a day. Really. It really made a difference and now I have no idea why I chose to be so stressed out. I’m not even sure when it happened. I didn’t even notice. But it did and I got a chance to see it. This might not be of any help but just in case you see any part of it in you, it will be worth it.