⬛Struggling With Your Steemit Addiction? You Are Not The Only One!⬛
Something has been popping up more and more in my talks with Steemians from all corners of the globe.
It seems that A LOT of us are addicted to Steemit.
And are struggling with it.
MASSIVELY.
Zooming in on my own experience.
These are some of the so-called symptoms I have been having from being so addicted to Steemit.
- Obsessively thinking about Steemit pretty much 24/7
- Checking Steemit on my phone every chance that I get (when I am on the toilet, waiting for the bus, in the tram, when I have to wait for the water to boil for my cup of tea)
- Linking every damn conversation to Steemit.
- Feeling happy when I am alone at home so I can deliciously satisfy my Steemit ‘needs’(Seriously, got anxious because I wasn’t spending as much time on Steemit as I wanted to)
- Constantly thinking of new posts to write based on my real life experiences (aka conversations I have had with peeps)
- Neglecting my personal relationships (yes, I have had arguments about my Steemit time with the boyfriend)
- Waking up in the middle of the night and checking my Steemit blog (which in turn really disrupts my sleep)
- Physical and emotional neglection of myself (Totally forgot to give myself quality time and practice self-love)
It’s pretty heavy ey?
And these are pretty much the symptoms of a full-blown addiction.
Do you recognize yourself in this as well?
The thing is even though I really really love Steemit so much, I have to face the reality that this is not healthy.
Although I was feeling mega elated and happy about Steemit overall, I also deeply felt that my behaviour was not making me happy.
It’s not a very joyful place being an obsessed, a little crazy, glued-to-the-screen woman.
This is not the basis for a productive, healthy, love-based experience of life.
In the long-run, this is going to tear me apart and spew me out on the digital gutter.
This is NOT going to work.
I HAVE to find a balance so that I do not end up on burning myself out.
So what do I do?
Well, I have been limiting my Steemit time. I won’t obsessively check Steemit every moment that I get. And although it was difficult at first, now it’s pretty easy.
When I have a free day, I will only spend four hours behind the laptop doing Steemit-related stuff like organizing things for @humansofsteemit, finding content for the Planet Steem Twitter account, hunting for posts to nominate for @ocd, talking on Discord and Steemit.chat and of course, my own intuitive writing!
Taking time for myself, enjoying being in the moment and just taking myself out on a date!
Which feels damn good.
It felt really uncomfortable in the beginning because my whole being was so used to being so involved with Steemit that it kinda felt like I was missing an arm and I was getting a little uncomfortable and anxiety-fueled thoughts entered my mind like ‘You’ve got to post once a day or people are not going to like you anymore!’.
Thankfully, I can see that these thoughts aren’t really true and is just the addiction speaking, so I don’t pay them much attention.
And now I am a much happier, calmer human being.
And I can show up on here with a complete presence and give you my all.
My Steemit limitations that I set up for myself, have completely made me a better person and my writing has become a hell of a lot better.
Because I am not writing to write, I am writing to express my heart.
Which I always was but when there’s this little voice of pressure constantly talking in your head, you succumb to that pretty quickly.
And now that voice is gone and I am here, writing the things that I believe are important and coming straight outta of my whole being.
So to anyone struggling with a Steemit addiction, I’d suggest taking a really hard look at the person you are now and what this addiction is doing with you.
Is it serving you?
Is it making you happy?
Is it healthy?
And do what you feel is best for you!
Here’s to talking with @ilyastarar about this which was why this post was created.
Here’s to acknowledging your Steemit addiction.
Here’s to having a good healthy life.
Still struggling with my Steemit addiction but doing A LOT better already,
Ashley
My LoveProject is @humansofsteemit! Featuring the humans behind the Steemit usernames!
To repeat what Steemit addiction, or oversteeming as I call it, has done to me and my life would be waste of time. Basically, whatever has happened to you has happened to me too. I will add just one thing. I have seen my Steemnow.com snapshot, the increase in reputation score and massive votes, more than a dozen times...in my dreams.
I love Steemit but I do not wish to compromise on more important things in life; health, sleep, relationships and reading books. I was doing that because of oversteeming a week ago. My posts were rocking and featuring on trending page but my sleep was gone and life was out of balance.
I cannot thank @lukestokes enough for his timely guidance. It was a converation with him which led met to stop harming the balance in my life. I have so much to learn in life and Luke is a big part of my learning process. I wish I could be like him; an outstanding human being with genuinely good values.
This post by Luke is what he gave me and the video inside it is what inspired me to take a look at what I wish to accomplish and what really can I afford to sacrifice.
I still Steem a lot. I still do things you listed so nicely. I am fairly active and have a lots of plans raring to be executed. But I feel that there a sense of calm now. Thanks to Luke again.
Finally, I noticed that I wasn't following you already so I did that. This post have strengthened the perspective I needed so much so I gave it my full vote. I know it will helps thousands of peopl who see my blog so I resteemed it as well.
Loved reading this post. Thank you for the mention. It was so nice talking to you, and will always be!
With Love,
Ilyas
Thanks for adding this.
Oh yea, I dream about Steemit too. Like last night, I was dreaming about @arcange haha
No idea what but he was definitely in my dream hehe
I am you are finding your balance.
Let's keep motivating each other to stay balanced and on track :)
Ouch, I've only been in a few days and I can already hear ya. im trying to build a whole bunch of other projects online at the moment, but keep finding myself here, posting, checking, checking, posting, reading.....
Must develop a structurd approach to this, or I'm feeling like it could eat me alive 👹
It will eat you alive so please keep an eye on it.
It's so easy to get completely sucked into the Steemieverse.
Good luck on your journey dear!
Thanks @ashleykalila , I appreciate it
I was struggling with a Facebook addiction, that wasn't getting me "high" anymore - just causing me to crash and feel angry and resentful all the time after organic reach went to practically nothing. So far Steemit has me happy and focused again on my passion, and it's helping alleviate a lot of the worry about how I'll make ends meet each month. I think I learned from Facebook that social media time has to be rationed. Still, it's so easy to get carried away and scroll and check out posts forever! lol I guess time will tell if I end up overdoing Steemit.
Woah, that sounds pretty heavy man!
Yes, I think it's a constant thing that we need to keep our eyes on. Especially on Steemit because theoretically, the more time and energy we invest on here, the more value we bring to the blockchain which also means more money!
So it's damn easy to get lost in there.
I think the key lies in balance :)
And remembering to look after yourself.
Hihi
thank you for sharing Adam!
Yep, there is a good reason to spend time on here. I don't mind spending time on social media when it actually is "social" and not algorithmed to hell, because for me that's part of my career as an artist. 3-5 hours a day on a computer is normal at almost any office job so, I don't feel bad about spending that on here, but if it gets to 8-10-12 hours a day like I was with facebook for a while - then I'll have to take a break to reset my cravings lol One thing that helps is I don't have any mobile apps on my phone for social media, so if I'm not at my computer I can't log in lol
I can relate to it all...I used to think it is okay.
After all I have been addicted to frivolities like Facebook and Games. At least this addiction is productive.
But any kind of addiction is bad because it brings imbalance in one's life.
Like you said I now have a day or two I 'stay away' from steemit atleast for most hours of the day and explore other parts of life.
Yesterday I went visiting someone I have not cared to see in a while, though I was constantly fighting the urge to open Steemit. I will also do the same today for few hours.
There is need to find a balance, that is what makes life interesting and more productive.
Thank you @ashleykalila for sharing this.
Yes, well said!
It's good to take a breather from it every day so it keeps you fresh and filled with inspiration!
Be kind to yourself
I experienced this. I was living and breathing Steemit that I have neglected a lot of things like my gaming community, going out with friends and even my dog!
So this week I gave myself some time off so my number of comments went down and also some of the people that I upvoted just to give myself some me time.
Also been busy offline on the articles we are preparing for @giftinkindph which hopefully becomes successful and become a good source of livelihood for the Aetas of Banawen.
Moderation is always good so that you can refocus your passions.
Yes, it's important to not let it completely take over our lives and for it to stay a pleasant and healthy experience :)
And I believe that in this way, we can bring EVEN more value to the blockchain because we have the energy and inspiration to really do it!
Happy you are on here!
I think having limited hours each day is a great idea. I think what can make me a bit obsessed is the thought of financial freedom, along with interacting with more genuine people than are on my fakebook list ☺.
We're both trying somewhat different ways to make this thing work, it will be interesting to check back and see how we're doing in a few weeks...
Hope you find that balance soon!
Yeah, it's already making a huge difference. Giving me a lot of breathing space.
Yessss, let's keep eachother updated!!
:)
I'm so glad that am not alone on this. Lol
I think the addiction is worth it.
I do not agree.
The addiction took over a lot of my life and it wasn't making me happy.
I am way happier now.
Addiction is never a good thing.
Well...at the beginning we will think it is good addiction since we love it and it is rewarding.
Any addiction take over one's life and create imbalances. There are times I deprive myself of sleep, exercise and even food for Steemit.
All that are not healthy...take a breather every now and then. The difference won't be much.
#Ibadanwhale
Hehehehe! Congrats on getting the 60 rep number :D what a round number.
You see @vincentnijman, put your eyes on your girlfriend :9
Oversteeming is a myth, no such thing, just spend all day worshipping Steem, the one true God... he will provide!
HAHAHAHA
Steem is the ONE and ONLY goddess but sometimes I need a little non-religious no holy time with mahself ;)
I am totally struggling with this right now too. I am still so new that my main issue right now is that the time it takes to make a quality post, plus go find wonderful people to follow and learn from, that can eat up at least 4 hours right there. I like to plan and organize things, and its been tricky to get organized on this platform because of how the feeds work, I need to develop a system so I can keep track of things easier like in Google Docs, etc. A lot of time consuming side work ! Plus I am addicted to Discord chats and the MSP Waves shows.. I just love being there, I learn so much and just amazing things happen there all the time. But I agree with you.. yesterday I limited myself and spent the day drawing and cooking , and only did some steeming. I felt much better. Like everything, there just has to be a balance. I compare my feelings about this community and platform to falling in love. And so its just as easy to become codependent and unhealthy with this as one could if you were in love with a person.. you want to spend all your time together! But in the end its not a long term sustainable thing! And taking time and space for ourselves does not mean we love Steemitville any less. <3
YUP.
SOOO WELL SAID DEAR!
It is like falling in love, you are right! :)
Through trial and error, I think we will all find our on way of interacting in a healthy way on the blockchain! :)
Thank you for sharing dear!
Well unfortunately, most things that you feels that you "have to do" makes me behave like this. And yes it feels better when I'm on Steemit or when I'm done with the things I was planning to do. But as my life is at the moment there is hardly any time for Steemit so I have been forced to get away from it, and it goes a lot easier now even if I fell a bit bad that I'm not there as much as I should any more. Great post my friend:-)
Yea, I had the same experience.
Initally, I felt bad for not being so involved on here but now that's become less and less and I am happy to have some time for myself and for other important things in my life!
<3
Thanks for sharing deary!