You've just been to the doctor, bad news given to you, or your relationship is falling apart. Most people respond by getting on their social media and hashing out their challenges with friends, family, and online personalities. Is that the healing way to deal with stress in your life, or is ghosting your social circle better for your mental health?

What is Ghosting 

Online social media platforms are wonderful for connecting those who share the same fashion, idealism, religion, and interests even across oceans. When you choose to ghost, you drop all but your most intimate connections. Doing so will limit the amount of pressure placed upon you to respond to inquiries or put a brave face on the situation. It allows you the time to cope in your own way by reflecting, refocusing and realigning yourself.

Mental Health

Everyone needs to be aware of their own mental abilities. Even so, you still need time to take care of YOU. Losing your job, death or illness of family, the birth of a child, or any other major event in life doesn't require your social media presence. More and more ghost events are happening not only for the wellbeing of individuals but for the better enjoyment of celebrating life milestones.

Why I Ghosted

Earlier this year I took my mom to visit her Alzheimer's doctor. We have reached the advanced stages of the disease, which is challenging at the best of times. Instead of pouring my heart out to my beloved online community, I ghosted. I chose to set down the devices I used daily to communicate with people I had never really met and chose to go hard at caring for my mom and for myself. Prioritizing my challenges lead to decreased pressure and stress while in this chapter of my life. I am handling this situation like a BOSS tho' and have returned with my sanity intact!

I encourage you all to reduce the stress you place on yourself and go silent. Ghost those profiles for a week, month, or year. Take as long as you need to accept, plan, and prepare for the situation before returning to those profiles. They will be there when you return, and when you do, you will have a story to tell. The story of how you showed stress who was BOSS then you can come tell me all about it!