fomo
What is FOMO? - Fear of Missing Out
What can this look like in early recovery?
Anxiety, Depression, Isolation, Over Eating, Binge Eating, Disconnected, Lonely, Stress, Anger
Why is this Important? - For anyone in recovery, these emotions or behaviours increase our stress. Increased stress creates unpredictable behaviour, and erratic behaviour leads to high-risk situations, which can lead to relapse.
What should I do?
Get back to basics – daily gratitude list, journaling, go to a meeting, call a sponsor. Socialize, Don’t seclude or isolate yourself.
Talk/ Share about it – Professional Counsellor, Sponsor, or large group meetings. Share with a friend or others about your feelings or struggles.
Balance - Recognize FOMO and participate in a daily recovery and spiritual program. Try to find a healthy, balanced lifestyle - work, extracurricular, family, diet, exercise.
Why or How is this beneficial? - Socializing will help decrease stress, depression and isolation.
A Gratitude List can help you appreciate what you have right now that you may be taking for granted.
Journaling can help express your emotions and thoughts and can help relieve fear, stress and anxiety. This can be helpful to ground yourself.
Sharing can help you express your feelings and thoughts, which can help relieve some of the distressful emotions or erratic behaviour. It can also help you generate solutions by discussing the problem with another person.
Recognizing a problem is the first step to making a plan to come up with solutions.
Conenctions – Find a like-minded sober community or event
Get involved in meetings (NA, AA)
Take on a role – secretary, reader or set up chairs, which requires your attendance and attention.
Find a reliable support group and reliable support person or people.
Go to the gym or exercise. Go for a walk. Do pilates.
Extras: I found these two TED talks helpful for insight into what FOMO is and how to manage FOMO.
Ted Talks: