The phrase digital disconnection can seem at odds with the idea of digital media technologies like social media. At its core, digital media is a source of connection. Through interactions, sharing information, or creative expression, people use digital media to connect with themselves and others. However, for many people, especially trauma survivors, digital media has become another source of trauma and re-traumatization. Thus, the rise of the call for digital disconnection or digital detox highlights digital technologies’ influence on well-being.
Rather than being a source of connection, digital media for trauma survivors becomes a source of distress and maladaptive coping. As noted in Cureus, digital media technologies can increase your risk for mental health symptoms like depression, anxiety, and stress. Humans are innately social creatures who desire and need companionship to support well-being. Despite the need for connection, digital media technologies distort your ability to engage in meaningful connection with each other. Yet, how do you as a trauma survivor reconnect with yourself and others in a digital age?
At The Guest House, we recognize that challenges with substance use disorder (SUD) and or other mental health disorders can often be attributed to a lack of awareness of trauma’s impact. Self-defeating thinking and behavior patterns like SUD and mental health disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are rooted in trauma. Together, co-occurring conditions rooted in trauma can erode your resilience and physical and psychological well-being. Thus, the overwhelming nature of trauma on its own, makes it difficult to connect with and understand yourself. Further, the addition of digital sources of communication and interaction can make finding reconnection even more difficult for trauma survivors.
At The Guest House, we are committed to providing holistic trauma-specific approaches to care to help trauma survivors rediscover their connection to the self and others to heal. An important therapeutic tool that supports reconnection is nature-based therapies like adventure therapy, rope courses, and equine therapy. Yet, how does digital media lead to more traumatization for trauma survivors? Understanding how digital overload can provide insight into digital trauma and the need for digital disconnection for healing.
What Is Digital Overload?
According to Frontiers in Psychology, we live in an information society in which both work and private life are rapidly digitizing. There is an abundance of information being produced globally around the clock. The amount of information being created digitally is difficult to fathom. As the article also notes, humans produce a roughly equivalent amount of information between the beginning of human civilization and the year 2003 in two days. Moreover, as stated in “Digital Overload, Coping Mechanisms, and Student Engagement” by Wondwesen Tafesse et al., information is not only being created; information is also being consumed at a rapid pace through content.
With the emergence of digital platforms for content sharing, social networking, instant messaging, and game services, people are always connected. Through the expensive digitization of life, there is a chronic compulsion to always be online. In particular, young people are deeply interconnected and compelled to consume, share, create content, and socialize on digital platforms. Thus, the constant presence of digital media in life has led to information overload and digital overload. Information overload on its own can lead to a variety of issues including performance losses.
Due to the constant distraction of disruptions and interruptions, information overload makes it difficult to focus. Further, the digital overload of information and interaction can lead to physical and psychological health challenges. Some of the health concerns that come out of digital overload include:
- Loneliness
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Fatigue
- Sleep deprivation
- Attention deficit
Additionally, digital overload can disrupt your ability to regulate difficulties with emotions and feelings like stress and anger.
Thus, digital overload can compound preexisting stressors to contribute to self-defeating behaviors like substance misuse and abuse. Moreover, digital overload of information is not the only way digital media impairs well-being and recovery from other conditions. Listed below are some of the other ways digital media can hinder the recovery process:
- Digital advertisements glorify substance misuse and abuse:
- Encourages you to romanticize your substance use
- You forget or ignore the many ways substance use has harmed you
- Romanticizing substance use can trigger cravings and negative emotions
- Encourages you to romanticize your substance use
- Constant exposure to digital media can lead you to substitute your primary addiction with digital media:
- You spend an unhealthy amount of time doomscrolling on social media
- Frequent digital media use can distract you from your recovery work
- Chronic digital media use can disrupt your sleeping patterns
- You feel significantly disconnected from others
- You spend an unhealthy amount of time doomscrolling on social media
- Frequent exposure to the highlight reels of countless people’s lives:
- Digital media use can impair your self-perception and lead to the fear of missing out (FOMO)
- Decreases your self-esteem
- Increases feelings of loneliness and isolation
- Impairs your mental health
- Increases the temptation to use substances
- Digital media use can impair your self-perception and lead to the fear of missing out (FOMO)
Digital media and information overload can harm anyone’s well-being. However, digital overload can be particularly detrimental to the health and well-being of trauma survivors.
How Digital Trauma Impacts Trauma Survivors
For trauma survivors, digital media overload can encompass a variety of types of content that increases trauma exposure. Whether you are overloaded by traumatic media coverage or your self-perception is harmed by social media, trauma is embedded in the digital space. According to “Trauma and Digital Media: Introduction to Crosscurrents Special Section” by Amit Pinchevski and Michael Richardson, there is a long history of association between trauma and media.
Media and trauma have shaped each other since analog media and continue to influence each other through digital media. Analog media such as photojournalism has showcased trauma in national and or global traumatic events. For example, photos of Nazi concentration camps, lynchings during the Jim Crow South, and the Vietnam War are all traumatic images.
Similarly, digital media exposes people to trauma through media coverage of traumatic experiences like mass violence and natural disasters across digital platforms 24/7. Not only does digital media expose individual trauma survivors to trauma but it also contributes to collective trauma for people without histories of trauma as well. As stated by E. Alison Holman et al., in “Media Exposure to Collective Trauma, Mental Health, and Functioning: Does It Matter What You See?” digital media expands traumatic events from the constraints of their geographical boundaries to virtually boundless experiences. On one hand, access to information digitally empowers critical thinking and informed decision-making. However, on the other hand, prolonged exposure to traumatic events in digital media amplifies and heightens distress.
Listed below are some of the ways exposure to trauma in digital media can harm trauma survivors and others:
- Informs stress
- Erodes resilience
- Contributes to loneliness
- Increases risk for mental health disorders
- Anxiety disorders
- PTSD
- Depression
- SUD
- Increases risk of suicide
- Instills fear and panic
- Informs insomnia
- Increases risk for acute and chronic physical health challenges
- Immune system deficiencies
- Body aches and pain
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Digestive issues like nausea and stomach pain
- More likely to develop diabetes and high blood pressure
- Greater risk for heart and lung disease, stroke, and cancer
- Higher rates of early death
For trauma survivors, in particular, digital media can exacerbate PTSD symptoms and increase re-traumatization. Yet, for many trauma survivors exposure to traumatic experiences online is impossible to avoid. Almost every domain of life is interconnected to the digital world. Whether you are at work, school, connecting with loved ones, or trying to stay informed, digital media is the main connector.
Thus, it is important to support trauma survivors in their efforts to adapt and build healthy coping strategies to overcome digital overload and digital trauma. Connection is an important healing tool for trauma survivors, so finding a connection with the self and others offline through digital disconnection can be invaluable to healing. One of the many therapies and modalities that can be utilized to support healthy connections for trauma survivors includes nature-based therapies like adventure therapy.
The Value of Adventure Therapy for Trauma Survivors
Pairing digital disconnection or digital detox with nature-based therapies like adventure therapy can be a powerful combination for healing and recovery. According to the Journal of Clinical Psychology, exposure to nature can offer physical and psychological benefits for trauma survivors. The benefits of nature are rooted in human’s intimate and innate connection with nature. Nature is an ancient tool for restoration and healing with a long history of supporting physical and psychological wellness. According to “Nurtured by Nature” by Kristen Weir, spending time in nature supports feeling more connected to yourself and the natural world.
With a sense of connectedness in nature, you are reminded that you are part of nature and it is a part of you. Through movement and structured activities, you empower the mind-body connection for greater self-awareness and self-understanding. Thus, activities in nature, especially in group settings, can help trauma survivors rediscover the courage to reconnect with themselves and others.
Yet, what is adventure therapy? As noted in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, adventure therapy is a set of programs that use outdoor activities and experiential learning exercises to heal. In particular, outdoor activities like ropes courses and experiential learning are used to cope with psychological distress.
To support a variety of experiences, there are three major types of adventure therapy:
- Adventure therapy: Utilizes different physical activities and tools to support therapeutic healing
- Typically found near or at the same location as the treatment program
- Supports connection through team-building activities that challenge negative self-beliefs
- Wilderness therapy: Focuses on engaging in activities that incorporate the wilderness
- Typically takes place in remote or near remote wilderness settings
- Supports overcoming negative self-beliefs
- Through experiences, you learn how to collaborate and problem-solve
- Long-term residential camping: Supports positive peer relationships, coping tools, and accountability
- Typically take place in outdoor camps or other mobile settings for an extended period
- Supports learning how to effectively respond to life challenges and deal with the consequences of your actions
While each form of adventure therapy is different, they share a common goal. The main goal of adventure therapy is to empower trauma survivors to rebuild safety in themselves through connection. At the roots of adventure therapy is the power of connection as a source of courage and resilience. Born out of experiential education, adventure therapy is the reflective process of learning by doing. Experiential learning is the belief that learning stems from direct experience.
Further, experiential learning highlights that learning is most effective through the active use of multiple senses. With multisensory processing, you experience a higher level of cognitive activity and increased memory, which supports changes in thinking and behavior. Not only do activities in adventure therapy support change, but its placement in nature recognizes the connection between people and nature. Together, activities in nature encourage self-efficacy and mastery over seemingly impossible obstacles. Additionally, the therapeutic process of nature-based activities enhances wellness in different domains like social, emotional, and physical. Therefore, within nature-based therapies and modalities like ropes courses and equine therapy, trauma survivors can engage in digital disconnection.
Ways to Engage in Digital Disconnection
Adventure therapy can include a wide variety of ropes courses based on your specific needs. However, the main goal of every ropes course is to help you learn adaptive coping skills to address challenges with trauma and co-occurring disorders like SUD and other mental health disorders. Yet, how do ropes courses work to support rediscovering connections to the self and others?
One of the major connection opportunities in ropes courses is the ability to form effective teams. Through ropes courses, you can find a safe and supportive space where success and failure can be explored for greater self-awareness and understanding. Thus, different element levels of ropes courses can open up different paths for personal growth and healing. Whether you are exploring ground, high, or low ropes, each element can help you build stronger communication and cooperation skills.
Additionally, ropes courses can also support important elements of self and interpersonal connection:
- Supports teamwork
- Empowers you to set healthy boundaries
- Increases trust in yourself and with others
- Supports deeper self-awareness and self-understanding
Looking at the benefits of ropes courses showcases nature and physical activity as foundational to uncovering your capabilities and ability to overcome challenges. With the support of instructors and peers, trauma survivors can overcome challenges with SUD, other mental health disorders, digital trauma, and digital overload. Furthermore, equine therapy is another type of nature-based therapy that can also support connection for trauma survivors. According to the NursingOpen, equine therapy or equine-assisted therapy is part of a larger group of activities and interventions like equine‐assisted activities and equine-assisted interventions. Therefore, various elements can make up an equine therapy program like therapeutic horseback riding.
Through therapeutic horseback riding, you focus on riding, grooming, and learning how to care for horses. Regardless of the specific activities incorporated in equine therapy, it is the therapeutic use of horses that supports well-being. The bond humans form with horses supports a therapeutic alliance as trusted social support. A comforting and affectionate relationship with horses can help restore your connection to the self, others, and nature. Thus, through the therapeutic alliance with horses, you can rediscover the trust in yourself and the world you lost to trauma.
Listed below are some of the ways equine therapy can support trauma survivor’s psychological well-being:
- Supports collaboration
- Encourages empowerment
- Provides safety in a non-judgmental environment
- Increases self-esteem and self-confidence
- Enhances self-awareness
- Offers compassion, kindness, and respect
- Encourages accountability
- Increases competency
- Provides a sense of autonomy
- Supports diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Encourages community
- Supports integrity
- Provides a sense of freedom and independence
- Enhances mindfulness
Looking at the many ways equine therapy can enhance well-being highlights nature-based therapies as restorative therapeutic modalities. With nature and group-based activities, you can rediscover the value of connection for well-being no matter where you are in your recovery journey. The digital world does not have to be a barrier to your health and well-being.
Fostering Recovery and Digital Well-Being for Trauma Survivors at The Guest House
We know it is almost impossible to avoid contact with digital media or traumatic images and experiences online. Therefore, at The Guest House, we believe in providing long-term solutions to help trauma survivors manage their condition or symptoms in everyday life. By engaging in nature-based modalities, you can build invaluable tools to manage life stressors, including digital overload and trauma.
Moreover, nature-based modalities are an incredible source for building meaningful connections to support resilience in long-term recovery. With support, you can learn how to navigate the harmful parts of digital media while fully utilizing the positive parts. Meanwhile, we are committed to providing trauma-specific approaches in a wide range of holistic therapeutic modalities to empower you to lead a fulfilling life in recovery.
Digital media has become an integral part of work and everyday life, which can contribute to digital information overload and trauma. Thus, exposure to traumatic events and perfection-driven life highlight reels online can harm the well-being of trauma survivors. Prolonged use of digital media can increase your risk of trauma and physical and psychological health issues. However, you can combat digital trauma with digital disconnection. Digital disconnection is made possible by fostering resilience through connection with the self and others. Therefore, at The Guest House, we are committed to providing trauma-specific nature-based therapies like adventure therapy, ropes courses, and equine therapy to restore trust and safety to thrive in long-term recovery. Call us at (855) 483-7800 to learn more.