Sooo…..One Saturday last fall, I was sitting on the couch watching The Social Dilemma on Netflix with my husband, he turns to me and says I bet you can’t go a week without your IPhone either. Hopefully, that isn’t a spoiler for you if you haven’t seen it! I was immediately offended because obviously I’m not addicted to my phone & I hate getting called out for this. As the movie went on, I was annoyed but also thinking, can I? So, obviously I accepted this challenge.
What I learned giving up my phone for a week..
I am most definitely addicted to my phone. The first two days were really weird. I have to mention this disclaimer……I have an iPad, a Macbook and a computer for my day job so I did not go completely off the radar into the dessert to live off the land. Butt….it was still super weird and surprisingly hard those first two days. The hardest part was not having my phone on the toilet, like what was I supposed to read, how am I supposed to know what my friends are doing if I can’t check out their Instagram & SnapChat stories. If you can get past the gross fact that I take my phone to the bathroom regularly and go straight to the point of me not being able to know what my friends are doing……I’m 38 years old. I am an “Elder Millennial,” and the fact that I don’t know what my friends are doing without social media should tell you something. What? I’m actually not sure yet but something about it feels wrong.
The second thing that I learned was I actually feel really good. I started writing this blog post on Day 7 & I heard it takes the rule of 3 (3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months) to kick an addiction in full (at least that’s what I researched when I was working my way through quitting smoking 10 years ago). Not having my phone, I was actually able to really focus on being more present – on my walks with Teddy, we actually go to new neighborhoods and explore. The other weird thing that I noticed, which may or may not be related is I take medication for anxiety and my phone is what reminds me to take these medications every day at 10am. I did not set another reminder, so I missed it once and forgot to take it until nighttime twice that week. I try really hard to take it on time, for those of you that don’t take anxiety medication it can really throw you off if you don’t take it properly. Usually, my thoughts are all over the place and I have what my husband and my sister like to call “crazy eyes” but they didn’t even notice. I felt fine and am 100% not going to stop my medication because “I’m cured” but I do wonder if there is a link or science behind this? I have no idea, I’m not a scientist or a medical professional but I do truly believe that there is certainly a connection between mind and body.
The third thing I learned about myself is that I can actually go a week without my phone. There were certain times that I had to borrow my husband’s phone for work calls so I couldn’t continue the experiment much longer but thinking about how much it helped my mental health, I am thinking about implementing “non-office hours” where I put my phone away and am just present. UPDATE: I didn’t implement “non-office hours” in 2020 but I have been putting it in the other room during the day on the weekends in 2021 (it helps me stay sane).
One of the main reasons that I started Claimint is because insurance companies give people such a hard time, especially when it comes to mental health claims. 2020 threw us a lot of curveballs but what I have gotten out of all of the “home” time is how important it has been for me to take care of myself mentally. If I’m not taking care of myself mentally how can I fight for others to get what they need covered.
Anyway, thanks for listening.