A few months ago, Liam suffered from anxiety and depression due to academic and peer pressure.
His parents promptly contacted the school and quickly solved the problem. They then carefully arranged a trip to help him relax. However, after returning to Hong Kong, Liam’s mood did not improve. On the contrary, his thoughts of despair became stronger: “Before, my depression was caused by problems in school. There was a reason for it, which gave me hope. I believed that after solving the problem, my mood would recover.
But now, there are no relevant problems to be solved now. The scary thing is that even though thousands of cherry blossoms were blooming right above me last week, I didn’t feel any joy. Instead, I suffered from irritability that came from nowhere every day. I feel like I have a terminal illness with no hope of recovery. ” When his parents observed this, they immediately sought help. A month later, Liam’s mood had improved a lot.
It turns out that in the past few months, Liam had been addicted to watching short videos on his mobile phone. Each video lasts from more than 10 seconds to half a minute and is continuously auto-played. Especially during sick leave, he would spend several hours every day watching hundreds of clips at a time. Because his brain was subjected to high-intensity flashes and extremely frequent attention shifts, it had become hurt. In the real world, even if there are cherry blossoms under the bright sunshine and a dazzling scenery in front of him, Liam’s brain cannot release dopamine and other happiness-related molecules normally. To make matters worse, since the mobile phone is in his pocket, it is almost effortless to divert his eyes from the natural beauty in front of him to these short videos. The result? Liam cannot easily focus on the beautiful scenery for more than 1 to 2 seconds when sightseeing. Mindfulness precedes satisfaction. Without it, no wonder he cannot feel any pleasure.
Under guidance, Liam did the following:
- Stop watching short videos. Watch movies at home with your family instead. Watch it calmly with the mindset of a curious viewer rather than a film critic.
- On weekends, hike during the day and stargaze at night. Look down from a high place or gaze up from the ground. The feeling of admiration can lead to dopamine release in the brain. Much more beneficial than binging shorts all the time.
- Watch high-quality events on-site: For example, going to the stadium with his father to watch the local first-division football league. Liam realized that although he is not a fan, as the countless eyes around him watch the game, his eyes also magically focus on football.
Liam has now regained his perceptiveness, concentration and joy, gradually moving towards “satisfaction from mindfulness”.
Written by: Dr. William Chui
Originally posted on: Health HKEJ
Translated by: Cheuk Long Chan
