Corrections_Today_Summer_2024_Vol.86_No.2

OFFICE OF CORRECTIONAL HEALTH

Ask the Doc Investing in your 401K mental wellbeing plan By Dr. Dean Aufderheide

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Q: Dear Dr. Dean, I’m getting ready for retirement after spending almost 30 years in correc tions. Most of my friends are the people I work with and I know I’ll miss them when I leave. Part of my transition plan was to build a new network of friends on social media. Over the past year, I‘ve been spending about 3 hours a day on social media platforms and have built up a pretty good-sized number of friends and followers. But here’s the problem — my plan to avoid feeling lonely by connecting with new people seems to have backfired. I’m feeling lonelier now than I ever have and I don’t know why. What’s your advice? — Anxious In Arkansas

experiences with seri ous loneliness, there are significant physi cal and mental health consequences of poor or insufficient connection. Technology can make things worse. Americans spend an average of 4 hours and 30 minutes on their mobile phones, up 52% from 2022. On average, they check their phone 144 times per day and spend 2.7 hours on social media platforms daily. Whereas “likes”

be connected with others, but it feels like we are all together alone on our own islands.” So, what can you do to invest in a post-retirement mental wellbeing plan that will pay you the physical and mental health dividends you need? First, recognize the problem. Although there is no official diag nosis of “social media addiction”, if you find yourself using social media compulsively and excessively, it’s a problem. In a recent survey about social media, 25 percent of respon dents said they felt it had a negative effect on their mental wellbeing, and 53 percent said they felt that cut ting down on usage could help. So, it’s important to take regular breaks from social media altogether to find some real-life grounding. Then, I recommend you deposit these significant seven “Loneliness Busters” into your Mental Wellbeing Investment Plan: 1. Understand the power of social

T hank you for your question, and thank you for your many years of dedicated service to our country’s public safety. The experience you describe is becoming increasingly common and coming to the attention of mental health profes sionals across the nation. Last year, the United States Surgeon General released an Advisory calling attention to the public health crisis of loneli ness, isolation, and lack of connection in our country. With approximately half of U.S. adults reporting

and “followers” may feel momentari ly good, they are poor substitutes for genuine human connectedness. In fact, research shows individuals who reported using social media for more than two hours a day had about double the odds of report ing increased feelings of loneliness compared to those who used social media for less than 30 minutes per day. As a colleague of mine, who was a heavy social media user, once told me, “I know our brains are wired to

connection and invest time in nurturing your relationships through consistent, frequent, and quality engagement with others.

Corrections Today | Summer 2024

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