Many people I’ve spoken to say the same thing about their excessive
online use and chronic illness, whatever that illness is: they spend way
too much time online when they are ill, and that ends up making them
feel worse.I am not saying the internet is the problem. I am
saying that when you are ill, your impulse control isn’t what it ought
to be and you don’t have the energy to do much else but web surf. You
are confined to home, perhaps missing social interaction. Then when
you go online, you end up in an endless spiral of politics and drama
that is hard to get out of because you just aren’t firing on all
cylinders.What’s worse, is
you went to the net to liven things up a bit, but after about a half
hour of reading screeds on twitter, you are physically and emotionally
exhausted. Social media is designed to make you respond to it like
Pavlov’s Dog, and if you are suffering from brain fog, or depression, or
any number of other ailments, you are going to have a hard time
managing your net use.There are times when internet drama has simply destroyed any enthusiasm I had to create that day.
Now that I am feeling MUCH better, I’ve noticed my net use has dropped
precipitously. It’s not about my virtuous commitment to work, it’s that I
simply have better impulse control because I am healthier.I’ve
always had a great work ethic, but when your work and internet use are
tied in to one another, you really don’t have a choice but to spend some
time online. When you do, if you are not able to manage your state, the
next thing you know hours have gone down the tube. And that is REALLY
depressing.I use my new cell phone to set timers which keeps me
on track, but one of the simplest things I do is I put a video of a
burning fireplace on my computer when I am not online. For some reason,
this discourages me from web surfing out of habit. Also, I often block
the net for big chunks of time each day so I can’t see it. If there is
an emergency, I can get to another computer in the house, just not to
the computer in the studio where it is easy to web surf when I should be
drawing.You might want to try the fireplace trick, I find it very soothing to have this in my studio.
Ooh! wanna try fireplace. may I ask where/how you get?
I just use a fireplace dvd. You can find a whole list of them on Amazon! Right now I am playing the scintillating Fireplace XXL, but you can get them in all kinds of fireplace flavors, with holiday themes, fireplace sound, background music, etc. It probably sounds silly, but it is very soothing.
I often have a fireplace dvd burning on my tv or computer all winter long. Since a close family member is allergic to formaldehyde, we can’t use our fireplace anymore! So I watch this. I’ve even bought them as gifts, everyone loves them! And best of all: they’re cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dvd+fireplace
