Mental Deterioration?

 I think that for the most part social media is most definitely not a good place nor a good source to be getting information from (even though many people do use the platforms to get most of their "knowledge". I personally think it's an excellent place to at least learn of something, but you won't learn about everything on a topic, subject, etc. based off of a post on social media.

However, with that being said, I was on TikTok earlier today and I saw one that was with an audio mostly to the tune of MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This", but instead of saying "can't touch this" someone dubbed over it saying "red flag". Continuing on, this one video ultimately had 4 different signs that someone is suffering from mental deterioration. Of course as I mentioned earlier, social media is not the be all end all for information on a topic, so I should take it with a grain of salt so to speak.

With that being said, here are the 4 signs that someone is deteriorating mentally: sleep troubles, easily irritated, eating too much/little, and social withdrawal.

Now I suppose that maybe those could just be results of a high stress environment/day and it just affects the entire person. I.e. when stressed cortisol is released, but most of the stress in the modern day isn't from a predator, it's from forces that don't require a physical response (usually running). I believe I read somewhere that elevated levels of cortisol increase chances of eating more/very calorie dense foods which could fall under the eating too much. High cortisol levels also can disrupt sleeping patterns, which can ultimately affect overall mood. I do suppose though that being very stressed out can burn someone out mentally.

Why am I talking all about this all of the sudden? Well, that would be because as I watched that video, I was wondering if that is the case for me. Am I breaking down mentally, slowly but surely, or maybe even faster than I realize and I just make jokes about it because it's funny to laugh at oneself? I'll break it down based off of these 4 signs.

Sleep Troubles: So far I don't think I've really had issues sleeping because I normally get just barely enough (about 6.5 hours) to function, and I can usually fall asleep easily enough or sometimes before I plan to. I should probably just put the phone down and not watch TikToks until 11:30 most nights and that would help haha

Easily Irritated: Honestly this just might be part of who I am and who I've been all these years, but maybe it is true that I'm experiencing elevated levels of it and when a small thing goes wrong I start fuming. There have been recent-ish instances of where something menial such as an impatient customer at work, or something with poor scheduling/arrangements of the team at work, and I get into a moment of just frustration and anger. I don't lash out necessarily, I'm mostly just grumbling to myself and thanks to the masks, no one can tell. Although I suppose I should work on not even doing that.

Eating Too Much/Little: I don't particularly think I eat that much considering I work on my feet for pretty much the whole 8 hour shift, save for a 30 minute lunch break and any time that I finish my morning responsibilities before we open the doors. Between that and now that I go to lift weights at the gym 3 days a week, I would think I'm eating just enough for what I do. I usually eat 2,500-3,000 calories a day, which is a considerable amount, but I wouldn't say it's in the "too much" range, nor is it "too little". Although in comparison, my family members eat 2,000, if that much.

Social Withdrawal: Honestly I'm uncertain on this one, I only think of it because I recently removed myself permanently from a discord server that I used to be on pretty much every day (they even banned me because of some misconception that I was the sole offender, which I'll admit I had my wrongs but for them to act as if they had nothing to do with it and be all innocent is ridiculous). Between that and not really hanging around after my shift ends to talk to coworkers like I did for the majority of the past year, does that count as social withdrawal? I mean on the one hand it's simply that I need to change my time tables so to speak because I now have scheduled workout times (because of the pandemic restrictions), I have 16 credits of community college, all on top of my full time job.

In some regards, maybe I am deteriorating, but that would definitely need to have more research/information gathering completed and not just base it off of something I saw on TikTok. The only thing that I could think that would be in favor (so to speak) of deterioration is that sometimes my memory isn't as sharp and I stutter occasionally because I can't remember the right word to continue my sentence. Well, I would remember it, but then I can't say it for some reason, which could simply just be long day time hours and not enough rest.

All in all, I guess it's ultimately just something to keep in mind and just watch and see if things get "worse" and if they do, then I'll need to find ways to take my foot off of the gas pedal.