Dr. Sue Varma

It's so helpful.

It's part of my job.

But there's this constant feeling of comparisons of not good enough.

Am I relevant?

Am I staying?

Am I doing this?

Am I doing that?

Am I doing enough?

So when you strip away all those elements, I do think that if anybody could do a digital detox of any amount, even if it's reducing your use, there's an app that the study had used.

It was called a Freedom app.

Basically, it shuts off the access on your smartphone.

And then what it does is you're welcome to use time online, but then you have to be deliberate about it.

But to me as a psychiatrist, the fact that simply removing the mindless scrolling on your phone

can show numbers, reduction in anxiety and depression.

Even if you don't have clinical depression, the irritability, a lot of people are just on edge because of everything that's happening in the world, socioeconomic reasons.

But if that can give you results as powerful as an antidepressant and as powerful as cognitive behavioral therapy, and these are two things that show 70 to 80% reduction in depression and anxiety, then I'm like, this is powerful, right?

This is free.

And this is within our control.

Yes.

So there's this concept of digital fog or digital dementia.