Currently, with the development of society and the progress of science and technology, all aspects of people’s social life have been affected to varying degrees and subtle changes have occurred without their knowledge. These changes seem to have been overlooked in ordinary days, but they are highlighted at the approach of festivals. Take the Chinese New Year greeting and blessing as an example, the old way of visiting the door, writing letters to congratulate, sending postcards, etc. has been replaced by telephone greeting, email and cell phone SMS blessing with convenient means of communication. Among them, sending cell phone SMS has become a common way for the public to pay New Year’s greetings in recent years with its advantages of being fast, economical and environmental friendly.
Not only on important holidays such as New Year’s Day, Spring Festival, Labor Day and National Day, but also on traditional Chinese holidays such as Lantern Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Tanabata Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Lappa Festival, or holidays of Western origin such as Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, Valentine’s Day and April Fool’s Day, people consciously and unconsciously send a text message to their friends and relatives to express their blessings and contact their feelings.
There are children in Father’s Day, Mother’s Day to send SMS greetings to their parents, students in the Teachers’ Day to send SMS thanks to the teacher, buddies, between the secret of the brother’s day, sister’s day through SMS v. love, and even bachelors do not forget to take the “bachelor’s day” each other to send a funny SMS flirt. So it seems that the holiday can not be separated from the text message. If there is anyone who does not send and receive holiday text messages during the holidays, then he / she either do not use the phone, or obviously “OUT”. Of course, there are two sides to everything, and holiday text messages are no exception. When people are overwhelmed with holiday text messages, a psychological disorder, “holiday text message anxiety”, comes on quietly.
What is “holiday texting anxiety”?
”Holiday texting anxiety disorder” is a new term that has been called by the general public and various media in recent years, and is not found in mental health and psychiatric textbooks. Because it is not a very specialized concept, psychologists generally do not pay much attention to it. However, “holiday texting anxiety” is after all a social and cultural phenomenon that the public often faces, and it is necessary to understand, analyze and seek countermeasures for it from a professional perspective. The first and foremost task is to give “holiday texting anxiety” a scientific proper name.
From a conceptual point of view, holiday texting anxiety should belong to the category of anxiety disorders. There is a clear professional definition of anxiety disorder. For example, the Chinese Diagnostic Criteria for Mental Disorders (Third Edition) (CCMD-3) defines anxiety disorders as
Anxiety disorder is a neurological disorder in which anxiety is the predominant emotion. It is mainly divided into two types: panic disorder and generalized anxiety. The anxiety symptoms of anxiety disorders are primary, and any anxiety secondary to somatic disorders such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, and hyperthyroidism should be diagnosed as anxiety syndromes. Other psychopathological states such as hallucinations, delusions, obsessive-compulsive disorder, hypochondria, depression, phobias and other concomitant anxiety should not be diagnosed as anxiety disorders.
Specifically broken down, one of the anxiety disorders, panic disorder, has clear diagnostic points.
Panic disorder is a neurological disorder in which recurrent panic attacks are the main primary symptom. Such episodes are not limited to any specific context and are unpredictable in nature. Panic attacks as secondary symptoms are seen in many different psychiatric disorders such as phobic neurosis and depression and should be differentiated from certain somatic disorders such as epilepsy, heart attack, endocrine disorders, etc.
The symptom criteria are.
(1) Meet the diagnostic criteria of neurosis;
(2) Panic attacks need to meet the following 4 items.
(1) The seizure has no obvious trigger, no relevant specific context, and the seizure is unpredictable;
(2) In the interictal period, there is no obvious symptom except the fear of having another seizure;
③The seizures are characterized by intense fear, anxiety, and obvious autonomic symptoms, and are often accompanied by painful experiences such as depersonalization, disintegration of reality, fear of dying, or a sense of loss of control;
④The seizure starts suddenly, reaches its peak rapidly, is conscious during the seizure, and can be recalled afterwards.
Severity criteria are: the patient is distressed because it is unbearable and cannot be relieved.
Course criteria were: at least 3 panic attacks within 1 month, or anxiety secondary to fear of further attacks lasting for 1 month after the first attack.
Exclusion criteria were.
(1) Exclusion of other psychiatric disorders, such as phobias, depression, or somatoform disorders secondary to panic attacks;
(2) Exclusion of panic attacks secondary to somatic disorders such as epilepsy, heart attack, pheochromocytoma, hyperthyroidism, or spontaneous hypoglycemia.
In addition to panic disorder, another more common anxiety disorder is generalized anxiety, which is diagnosed with the following points.
Generalized anxiety refers to a type of anxiety disorder that is dominated by anxiety with a lack of clear objects and specific content, and nervousness, with significant vegetative symptoms, muscle tension, and motor restlessness. Patients suffer from unbearable and unrelieved anxiety.
The symptom criteria are.
(1) Meet the diagnostic criteria for neurosis;
(2) Predominantly persistent primary anxiety symptoms that meet 2 of the following.
(1) Frequent or persistent fear or anxiety without a clear object or fixed content;
(2) With autonomic symptoms or motor restlessness.
The criteria for severity are: impaired social functioning, and the patient is distressed because it is unbearable and cannot be relieved.
The duration of the disease was defined as: meeting the symptom criteria for at least 6 months.
Exclusion criteria were.
(1) Exclude secondary anxiety of somatic diseases such as hyperthyroidism, hypertension, coronary artery disease, etc.;
(2) Exclude anxiety associated with overdose of excitatory drugs, hypnotic and sedative drugs, or withdrawal reactions to anxiolytic drugs, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobia, hypochondria, neurosis, mania, depression, or schizophrenia.
It follows that generalized anxiety is a more persistent anxiety disorder, and panic disorder is a recurrent acute episode of anxiety, which together form the category of anxiety disorders. So, what does holiday texting anxiety have to do with anxiety disorders? If it also belongs to the category of anxiety disorder, it seems to be less serious than the diagnostic criteria; if the two have nothing to do with each other, then why is it named “holiday texting anxiety disorder”? In fact, an examination of the commonality between holiday texting anxiety and anxiety disorders can explain the problem. This commonality is anxiety.
Anxiety is a common emotional response that occurs in both normal people and patients, and is not a disease in the strictest sense. Daily social life is full of realistic factors that cause anxiety, such as exam anxiety in children, adolescent anxiety in teenagers, employment anxiety in college students, marriage anxiety and childbirth anxiety in youth, work anxiety in the prime of life, retirement anxiety in middle and old age, and so on and so forth. As the saying goes, “If you don’t have long-term worries, you must have near worries”, which refers to this kind of anxiety.
Its characteristics are.
(1) It is anxiety, nervousness and fear without a clear object or content for no reason;
(2) It is pointing to the future, as if some threat is imminent, but the person himself cannot say what specific threat or danger exists;
(3) It usually
persist for a period of time and may develop into a psychological disorder or physical illness such as anxiety disorder only if it does not improve over time. From a physiological-psychological perspective, anxiety is an unfounded panic and nervousness experienced psychologically as generalized, unfixed target worry and panic, and physiologically accompanied by a somatic response of increased alertness.
When the anxiety is caused or aggravated by dealing with holiday text messages, persists for a certain period of time, is so serious that it affects normal life, and even the festive atmosphere of the holiday is greatly reduced by dealing with text messages, and even feel more and more tired of the festival, and fear of the festival to the extent of “talking about the festival”, then it means that it has been troubled by holiday text message anxiety disorder. Therefore, the more accurate name of holiday text message anxiety disorder should be “severe anxiety related to the handling of holiday text messages”. Since it is difficult to say and explain, it is better to call it holiday texting anxiety. This finally gives holiday texting anxiety a proper name.
Manifestations of holiday texting anxiety
Holiday texting anxiety can appear in every detail of handling holiday text messages, and can be subdivided into a variety of anxieties. At first glance, the variety of manifestations is truly breathtaking.
Since you want to express your holiday wishes, you must create your own original text message. However, the preparation of a text message, although only a few dozen words, but let people rack their brains. The text is elegant, it seems too pretentious; the language is straightforward, it is a bit vulgar. Write a little dialect, it is not the same country can not understand; use foreign words, it is inevitably pandering to foreigners. Write a long fear of people do not want to read on; write a short fear of people feel you perfunctory him. In this way, high is not, low is not, write is not, do not write is not, send others to write more is not, around the dilemma. Seeing that it is going to be New Year’s Eve, the golden moment of sending text messages is coming, but the original text message has not yet been compiled. Not to mention the need to write different targeted original text messages to many different people. This is more difficult than a head of state giving a public New Year’s message. It’s a real rush.
It’s hard to make up your own personalized text message or pick a ready-made one that you’re happy with, but sending it is still difficult. Before sending, you have to choose the right person. To the leadership to send, others are sent, you do not send, do not be proud of yourself; can be sent to the leadership will not have the suspicion of flattery, so be careful. To colleagues to send, every day to see heads up and down, do not send more raw points; but before the holiday to work to see, after the holiday to work still have to see, a few days not see can not help but send text messages, the other party will feel that I have ideas for him / her, it is really difficult! To the teacher to send, do not send even if you forget the teacher’s kindness; but the teacher will not be too false to their own feelings, for people or the teacher taught, and now how many years do not visit, but also good to send SMS? This is more careful.
To friends and relatives, partners, business customers and so on have this kind of send or not send the dilemma to choose. Sending the timing is also very critical, sent earlier days to grab the first people, that you value each other, but the holiday atmosphere is not thick, easy to see that the motive is not pure; New Year’s Eve, the first day to send, catching up with everyone SMS tide more lively, but not reflect their own characteristics, but also afraid to affect people’s rest and mood, not to mention that the other party may not have time to look; later days to send, seemingly deep feelings, long memories, but the festival is almost over, the other party will not It feels like I almost forgot about him, and it’s only then that I remembered. The text message is difficult to write, difficult to send, after sending worry about the other party to see, back or not, still reassured, it is really difficult.
Whether it’s written by someone else or sent by someone else, forwarding ready-made text messages can save you the effort of writing them yourself, and sending them as a group saves a lot of trouble. And, other people’s talents and wisdom for my use, and add a lot of elegance and humor to their own. Forwarding SMS is really a multi-benefit. But problems and worries also come with it. In the tide of text messages, who received the same text message are reluctant to read a second time, and how can I guarantee that the other party did not receive this text message before? Some text messages may be too good to be forwarded year after year, others are tired of seeing it, I do not know, will not be laughed at again? Not to write their own, obviously already is not sincere, in case the ready-made text message they have not read to understand forwarded out, so that people see how embarrassing the breach. Sometimes you will also receive the address and the sender is not a person’s text message, at a glance you know is forwarded to, if you are not careful to make such a mistake, the other party know forwarding okay, do not know will think they changed their names, will not be more trouble? When you think about it, even forwarding this convenient way has become worrying.
In the festive atmosphere, receiving text messages from others adds a lot of color to the holiday, but at the same time, receiving text messages can also bring anxiety. Before the holiday, early in the anticipation of who will send text messages to themselves, waiting for a holiday also did not receive, they seem to be faded out of each other’s memories, melancholy and spoilers to make the festival over no taste. In the peak hours of receiving text messages, a message after a message to let themselves receive a lot of fun, inevitably lost.
At this time may miss their own expectations of people, but always by their unfamiliar or do not want to contact the people who send messages to bother. And texting people have been used to not leave a note, and his name is not stored in their own cell phones, and sometimes do not avoid going through the paper address book, and even the business cards received over the years also turned out one by one to compare the phone, the result is that some anonymous text messages become unowned “orphans”. It is also worth thinking twice about whether to ask “who are you” in reply. Ask it, the other party must be angry, I kindly send you a text message, you do not even remember me, the holiday more hurt feelings; do not ask it, who is he in the end, always makes people feel insecure.
Of course, in addition to the above performance of SMS anxiety, there are also reading SMS anxiety, reply SMS anxiety, save SMS anxiety, delete SMS anxiety, etc. Symptoms vary, but the common feature is that they are accompanied by different degrees of anxiety. Due to the limitation of space, we will not list them all.
Why holiday texting anxiety occurs
If you refer to the symptoms of holiday texting anxiety, many people will find themselves suffering from this disorder to varying degrees. This fierce and widespread psychological disorder is indeed the enemy of public holiday mental health. To eliminate it, we need to explore its causes. Typically, the causes of holiday texting anxiety come from at least three sources.
The first is a practical reason, namely the contradiction that humans are both dependent on and constrained by modern communication tools. The advantages of text messaging need not be mentioned, but the excessive use of text messaging is bound to bring problems. When the role of a small text message is overestimated, the human habitual psychology will try to manipulate it as much as possible. And after all, SMS is SMS, the amount of information it carries is limited. When people let the limited capacity of the text message to carry more information load, the extra information can not be carried by people subjectively to give imaginary meaning, and still need to communicate through the text message human how can “heart to heart” to the meaning of these words tacitly understand it? What’s more, holiday text messages flood the cognitive system of the recipient and sender’s brain through cell phones in a short period of time, causing information overload inside the cognitive system. The human cognitive function is unable to process too much information, and at the same time, when it is impossible to avoid, it is in a state of stress, and psychological problems naturally follow.
The second reason is personal, that is, the contradiction between the internal personality factor and the external environmental factor. People are very different from each other, but at the same time they have to rely on the same way to communicate, which inevitably causes the inconsistency between the individual’s inner and external requirements. When individuals cannot control the outside world, they can only adjust their own habits of speech and behavior in order to adapt, and the ability to adjust and adapt varies, so holiday texting anxiety has different degrees of expression in different people. It is easy to find that the personality characteristics of susceptible people are: perfection, self-centeredness, control, stereotypical obsession, cautiousness, complacency, overthinking, and sentimentality. Sometimes different or even contradictory personality traits can be concentrated in one person, if it is difficult to adapt, psychological problems are inevitable.
The third is the cultural factor, that is, the contradiction between the traditional cultural psychology and the modern way of communication. The Chinese are known for their etiquette, and this is even more pronounced during the traditional Chinese New Year. As a result, some people who are normally unconventional have to become rule-abiding and respectful during the New Year. Although many of these rituals are inherited from feudal farming societies, they can be preserved as national traditions and cultural heritage if they are not harmful. In modern society, the way of production and life is very different from the past, and the traditional means of paying respect to the New Year by SMS in the information age is certainly with the atmosphere of the times, but also inevitably brings trouble. When you realize that SMS and culture are still incompatible, it’s easy to understand why quick forwarding and group texting can be a controversial courtesy issue. Thus, rather than being a clinical disease, holiday texting anxiety is more of a sociocultural phenomenon.
How to avoid holiday texting anxiety
Once you find the root of the problem, it’s not difficult to address holiday texting anxiety. When you realize that you are likely to suffer from, or have suffered from, holiday texting anxiety, you should treat it in a timely and scientific manner. The principle of treatment is: treat both the symptoms and the root cause. Of course, there are also priorities: urgent is to cure the symptoms, slow is to cure the root.
The standard is the obvious anxiety, dealing with anxiety can temporarily avoid the object causing anxiety. Those who have the courage to do so can get rid of the text message and try to pay their respects in the traditional way, such as by visiting the door in the near future or by phone in the far future. Although it will cost more, but the heart is solid and at the same time promote direct communication feelings. It is also necessary to learn some methods of self-relaxation, to develop the habit of regulating their own body and mind, such as practicing tai chi, yoga, meditation and other good habits, not to interrupt the practice because of the holidays. If it is so severe that it is difficult to live a normal life, such as eating and drinking, restlessness, sleepless nights, or even pessimism, it is necessary to consult a professional doctor and take anti-anxiety medication.
Personality traits that are taken for granted should be changed when the personality becomes a susceptible factor. Although it is easy to change one’s personality, it is difficult to change one’s nature, but it is not impossible to change it. During the stable period when anxiety is relatively relieved, it is important to consciously change habits, update concepts, try new and healthy lifestyles, look at life from a developmental perspective, accept new things, new information and new challenges, and maintain harmony with the external environment. If you have difficulty changing yourself, you can turn to a professional psychologist for systematic psychotherapy. With improved psychological quality, holiday texting anxiety will be far away from the joyful holiday life.