Are you suffering from digital-induced anxiety? It’s a loaded question and one of enormous weight in today’s digital age. Laptops, smartphones, the internet, gadgets – click, scroll, like, follow. Heart pounding, breath shortening, and body heavy – anxiety creeps in. On a daily basis we, (the curious, the connected, the intelligent, the active, the reactive and the anxious) find ourselves overwhelmed by updates, our minds swollen with new information, but we can’t stop. Digital-induced anxiety is a vicious cycle of wanting stimulation, getting it, burning out, and then wanting more.

Adult magazine’s Fiona Duncan is no stranger to this. “If I’m working a lot, which means sitting in front of a laptop all day, I’ll start feeling stressed, sad, and lonely. I neglect my vessel, I get blue,” she explains. In a saga of three refreshingly personal essays and one talk, titled Generation Anxiety, written for Allday and supervised by Adult Magazine, Duncan explores why we have these anxieties and how much control we have over them, while tackling themes of sex, the body, the internet and reality. Below, she tells us what it takes to combat body anxiety in a digital world.

GIVE IN TO YOUR DIGITAL DESIRES AND GO ONLINE

Reality is an ambiguous concept, especially in today’s tech-obsessed universe. Can being offline – human flesh, fresh air and the feel of grass between your toes – still be the defining example of reality? Surely, in a world where the majority of time is spent online, reality now extends to blue-tinted touchscreens and voice-recognition. According to Duncan, online is reality, and learning to accept and embrace it aids the suppression of digital anxiety. “It’s not the tool, it’s the use, said another way: what is, is what we make of it. Like the internet, (anxiety) becomes a layer over everything, I can’t receive information clearly, it overwhelms, it can be dangerous, I only get out when I accept the pain,” Duncan tells us. “For both, I’d suggest stop fighting, we should respect our anxiety. It may be irrational, but isn’t it sensible? A sensible response to the stimuli of the 21st century?”

“I’d suggest stop fighting, we should respect our anxiety. It may be irrational, but isn’t it sensible? A sensible response to the stimuli of the 21st century?” – Fiona Duncan

LET IT OUT – DUMP YOUR ANXIETIES ON SOMEONE ELSE

Sometimes, yes, talking to yourself suffices, however, talking to others – in person, on forums, it doesn’t matter – can lead to experiences and understandings about yourself you never knew were possible. “I’m personally unconvinced of the efficacy of a patient talking to the empty chamber of the therapist’s silence. I’m soothed by dialogue, I want to commune, knowing other people feel the same stressors really, really calms me down,” explains Duncan. “Have you ever voiced an anxiety to a friend only to hear how ludicrous it sounds aloud? Or, how inherited? Like, OMG! That’s what my dad used to say to me, I’m only recognising it now. Then you and this friend laugh, and suddenly you realise your IBS cramps have passed? Or, have you ever voiced an anxiety, admitting it may be ludicrous, only to have your pal be like, no, that’s real, and I’m sorry, and how can I help? Talk therapy, man.”

SWITCH OFF AND BE ALONE

Alone, solo, single – words that are more-often-than-not thought of negatively, but why? Being alone is an opportunity for self-reflection, self-development and ultimately/hopefully self-acceptance. In part two, “In Real Time”, Duncan writes of a sexual encounter with a stranger, and the strange loneliness that followed. However, it was this experience that lead to self-recognition and, the recommended anxiety cure, belief. “I realised shortly after the strange sex incident of ‘In Real Time’ that I am the only person I’ll be with forever, always, till death, and maybe after – if I’m lucky. Given that, I should seduce and befriend and parent myself. I sort of believe in the basic mystic idea that all is one, I am but a part of a large organism called the Universe, or Existence: I am matter. I matter.” Repeat, and repeat again.

FUCK REGULARLY AND DON’T THINK TOO MUCH

Advice prescribed for anxiety often comprises exercise or meditation, away from the digital world, and outside, in nature. Sure, these methods work, but only temporarily, a brief moment of separation from digital. Duncan advises it can be the less focused and less mediated movements that are more effective to quell anxiety. “I believe, because it feels true, that the body wants to move. It wants to be used. We have impulses to breed and dance, to fight or flee. I’m far more likely to get anxious if I’m not exercising and/or fucking regularly – I try to listen to my body, to observe where I am feeling stress, like is it in my chest? My hands? My temples? Self-massage, breathe deeply. Work through the body,” Duncan explains. “Thinking has limits. I’m constantly surprised by experience, by what I learn in doing. Anxiety is us trying to answer the ‘what if’ questions, doing is experimenting with trial and error, getting your hands dirty, in it – too much premeditation can paralyse.”

FORGET THE FUTURE, EMBRACE THE PAST

According to Duncan in “In Real Time”, anxiety is commonly “future-orientated”, the digital world keeps you present, in some respects, constantly updated with news, images and social communes; but it also shortens what is defined as “present”. The one second tag appears, and a tweet, Instagram or Tumblr post is rendered “past”. “We aren’t encouraged to take the time needed to process. Speed is exciting. Instagram can be instantly gratifying. But, it sets me, at least, into the Excitation/Frustration loop that Beatriz Preciado (trans writer, philosopher, curator) talks about with porn. “Never satisfied,” Duncan says. This present/future, real/digital, dissatisfaction transfers, ultimately, onto the self. Stepping away from speed, slowing down, looking back, time travelling; they all act to combat body anxiety. “I often think about this Ayesha Siddiqi tweet: ‘Be the person you needed when you were younger’. What did I need then? What do I need now? How can I become that? How can I be of service? These are healthful aspirational questions to me. They quell anxiety!”

Read Duncan’s full essays on Allday