Why I quit social media to reduce my chronic pain

The algorithm optimises for attention, not for relaxed shoulders or emotional stability

I don’t know whether this is just me, but whenever I start scrolling through Instagram, I always start feeling more achey and tired within about 2 minutes.

After reading more about the science of chronic pain and fatigue (part of my mission to feel more empowered and at peace with my axial spondyloarthritis) I think I’m starting to understand why. I’m using that understanding to change my daily routine to one which hopefully involves less pain and fatigue: by quitting Instagram and moving entirely to Substack.

Can social media trigger chronic pain?

How pain works is still not understood very well. It’s incredibly complicated, and involves a lot of different factors.

But whether I’m reading about the neuromatrix of pain, or bio-psycho-social factors involved in pain, or the gate-control theory of pain (which I learned in the first session of the painTRAINER relaxation exercise programme I wrote about in an earlier post), one common theme repeats: the role of mood, emotions, our thinking, our happiness, even loneliness, can have a significant impact on the amount of pain we perceive.

I’ve also been noticing how much tension I hold in my body. As I’ve been doing the progressive relaxation exercises in my painTRAINER practice sessions, I’m noticing a difference in the amount of tension I feel in my body before and after, which seems to have a slight beneficial effect on my pain (although it tends to be short lasting, maybe an hour or so).

I’ve come to the conclusion that when I start using Instagram, I’m doing the reverse of these relaxation exercises: I’m creating tension in my body (my posture becomes hunched and tense) and I’m experiencing emotions which are triggering unhelpful stimulation in my brain and my body (perhaps of missing out on things I see people doing that I can’t do, like crazy yoga pose at sunset, or anxiety of having to constantly catch up).

Making a change

What helps one person with chronic illness doesn’t necessarily help another person with chronic illness, but there’s only one way to find out: make a change, and see what happens.

That’s why¹ I’m quitting Instagram. I realise that despite all the wonderful people with chronic illness who I’ve interacted with on Instagram, overall it’s detrimental to my health.

I’m lucky that I get to interact with so many of you who write in about my symptom diary app with questions and feature requests. What I love about these interactions is they are long-form, via email. I get to do what I’ve always loved to do - to think, to take my time in crafting my ideas into words, in my own time, sitting upright on my comfortable chair at my desktop computer.

So for me it’s no more hunching, no more anxiety, just you, me and calm, thoughtful writing.

Do you use social media, and do you think it can trigger your symptoms? I’m genuinely interested to know if it’s just me!

1. Actually there are tons more reasons I’m quitting Instagram, owned by Meta, also responsible for one of the worst companies in history, Facebook. This is just the last straw which has made the benefits of leaving justify the high switching cost of losing so many contacts I’ve spent years talking to on Instagram