Looking to feel better? Want to help your children feel better? It might be time for a detox. And the one we’re talking about actually works. The Odyssey: Parenting. Caregiving. Disability. The Center for Family Involvement at VCU School of Education's Partnership for People with Disabilities provides informational and emotional support to people with disabilities and their families. All of our services are free. We just want to help. We know how hard this can be because we're in it with you. SHOW NOTES: Details on the United States Surgeon General’s Advisory About Effects of Social Media on Youth Mental Health. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s Op Ed Essay on why he’s calling for a warning label for social media. Here is a full review of the book The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. Looking for ways to protect your family when they are online? Check out Erin’s article on how to make that happen: Time for Some Screen Cleaning. Want to share your own experiences attempting a digital detox? Send Erin an email! TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to The Odyssey. Parenting, Caregiving, Disability. I'm Erin Croyle, the creator and host of the Odyssey podcast explores how our lives change when someone we love has a disability. I was lucky enough to head down this less traveled road when my first child was born with Down's Syndrome in 2010. Now I work for the Center for Family Involvement and Lisa's Partnership for People with Disabilities. 01:00:34:17 - 01:01:06:12 Erin Croyle This podcast explores the triumphs and hardships we face. We celebrate the joys that the odyssey of parenting, caregiving and disability bring. But there's no sugarcoating of the tough stuff for so many of us. Everything feels harder than it should lately. Most everyone I know is just sort of getting by. That whole living your best life vibe that we had going around several years ago is mocked in a lot of circles. 01:01:06:14 - 01:01:22:15 Erin Croyle So what's going on and what can we do to change it? Dare I say, a detox is in order and the one I'm recommending is something virtually everyone needs. 01:01:22:17 - 01:01:46:01 Erin Croyle Is anyone okay right now? I'm living in this fog that's just clinging to every part of my being. My brain, my body, my soul. It lightens now and then and even lifts for a bit once in a while. But most of the time, it's so dense. I feel it pulling me down. When I talk to people close to me, most of them are in this metaphorical fog too. 01:01:46:03 - 01:02:10:05 Erin Croyle I'm sure that some of what my age said is feeling is partly part of middle age, but I see it in my children and other kids their ages. I see it in. I see it across the board. This is an unprecedented mental health crisis that we're in. Our whole country is living under a heaviness like never before. So how do we feel? 01:02:10:05 - 01:02:39:01 Erin Croyle Better. Look, I'm a journalist, not a doctor. Over the years, I've read, listened to, watched and or tried practically every bit of healthy living advice out there clean eating, running, tracking macros, fitness watches, apps, sleep hygiene, skipping breakfast, and sometimes lunch, also known as intermittent fasting. And even though I know that they're ridiculous, I love the idea of a detox. 01:02:39:03 - 01:03:12:01 Erin Croyle The problem is none of them work. Even if I feel better for a little bit once, whatever I've cut out comes back into my life. All that work is for naught except for one. As my daughter would say. Drum roll, please. The Digital Detox. My first true digital detox happened by accident nearly a decade ago. We were on a family vacation in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and we had absolutely no service. 01:03:12:03 - 01:03:41:09 Erin Croyle So imagine a week without a ping, a ring or a vibration interrupting a darn thing. There were no new notifications on social media. I didn't have the ability to post anything and therefore there was no need to see if there were any reactions. I didn't have any breaking news, no texts. It was amazing. That week was transforming. We live in an era of information overload that is beyond comprehension. 01:03:41:11 - 01:04:15:03 Erin Croyle The only way to realize this is to pull yourself out of it. Pretty much everything you pull up on your phone is designed to get you to use your phone or that app or that website even more. This podcast, same thing. Every entity has their own reasons to get you to go down the rabbit hole. Now, for the work I do, it's so that people with disabilities and their families, whether it's ADHD or cerebral palsy or mental health or Down's syndrome or whatever, it's to have meaningful content with relatable stories that we can all listen to. 01:04:15:05 - 01:04:44:08 Erin Croyle It's to connect people through digital media or in person, because this experience can be so isolating. It's providing information and resources for people with disabilities and...
