Wake Up

Mental Health in the Digital Age

• Douglas James Cottrell PhD • Season 1 • Episode 71

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The digital revolution promised to connect humanity, but has it secretly unraveled our mental health? In this compelling exploration of modern psychological well-being, Dr. Douglas James Cottrell confronts the uncomfortable truth about our relationship with technology and information.

"Are you informed or are you provoked?" This powerful question forms the centerpiece of an eye-opening discussion about how our consumption of news and social media is fundamentally rewiring our brains. Dr. Cottrell challenges listeners to examine their own behaviors with a simple but revealing test: Can you put down your phone for 24 hours? The withdrawal symptoms many experience reveal just how deeply our devices have become integrated into our psychological functioning.

We've entered unprecedented territory in human history. While previous generations witnessed world events through limited channels they could easily turn off, today's constant connectivity creates an inescapable stream of information—much of it deliberately designed to trigger emotional responses rather than provide balanced understanding. Dr. Cottrell shares troubling insights about how propaganda operations create divisive content specifically engineered to radicalize viewers and keep them returning for more, all while generating massive profits for media companies.

The path to mental health begins with awareness. By practicing what Dr. Cottrell calls "mind washing"—the daily cleansing of negative thoughts and provocations—we can regain our emotional equilibrium. This includes diversifying our information sources, establishing boundaries with technology, and consistently asking whether content is genuinely informing us or merely provoking an emotional response.

Ready to reclaim your mental sovereignty? Listen now to discover practical strategies for breaking free from information addiction and rebuilding a balanced relationship with technology in our increasingly chaotic world.

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Announcer:

Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell, your source for helpful information, advice and tips to live your life in a mindful way in this increasingly chaotic world. For over four decades, dr Douglas has been teaching people how to develop their intuition and live their lives in a conscious way. His news and views of the world tomorrow, today, are always informative and revealing. To learn more about Dr Douglas, be sure to visit his website, douglasjamescottrellcom, where you can download self-help exercises you can do right in the comfort of your own home. And now here's your host, dr Douglas James Cottrell.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Welcome to the Wake Up. I'm your host, douglas James Cottrell, and my good friend and co-host, les Hubert, is here and we hope you enjoy these episodes on our podcast Wake Up. Please let us know, send us topics or send us some direction or information if you'd like to Info at Douglas James Cottrell. Every email is important to us and helps us bring to you what you want to hear in the wake up. Welcome to the show tonight, les. What's on the menu?

Les Hubert:

Well, Doug, it's been brought to my attention. Many people have been asking about how to maintain one's mental health in these stressful times. People keep asking me, you know, is it me or am I seeing just strange stuff happening out here? Are people acting a little peculiarly or more so than normal? They want to know what's going on and how to deal with it and how to stay healthy.

Douglas James Cottrell:

First thing to realize is that we live in a different world that our parents lived in and we live in a different world than we lived in just 10 years ago. True, and certainly with COVID, we live in a different world than we lived in just 10 years ago and certainly with COVID, we live in a very, very different world since two years ago. So the answer to the question is that we are now in new territory. The world has never been in new territory. The world has never been like it is today, never. We've gone through world wars before. We've seen atrocities all around the world. We've watched on our television sets the Vietnam War unfolding nightly. We've watched as the Irish Republican Army was blowing up people and, let's say, urban warfare was going on. We've watched Idi Amin and we've seen situations going on with Pol Pot and in Cambodia and Gaddafi and dictators in South America. There have been many, many terrible things in the world, but we've been able to keep our mental balance because we've been watching it on television.

Douglas James Cottrell:

It has affected us. Many people took to the streets and they protested about it. Now more Many people protested the Irish army, the IRA and the situation. They were protesting on both sides. I'm not trying to be political. I'm not leading here to Republicans or Democrats or independents which the independents, I think, are going to do very well in the next midterm elections, by the way. What we're talking about is that news that was coming to us. What we're talking about is that news that was coming to us. Things that influenced us from afar were different than they are now. Right now, people can't wait to get on the internet. The problem is they only go to the news sources that they like. They don't look at the ones they don't like.

Les Hubert:

True that they like they don't look at the ones they don't like.

Douglas James Cottrell:

True, yeah, and so they now are streamlining their input of information and this is very, very dangerous because the input of information that we're getting, most of it's false, in my humble opinion. We talk to people who say fake news. We talk to people about fake websites. We talk about people being conned and shams going around and spam and this and that, but we're on the internet and we go to our favorite sites and we listen to our favorite news giver or communication person, because a lot of it isn't news, it's propaganda, in my opinion, and we listen and then we get angry. Think of this with us If you want to have mental health, if you want to be healthy emotionally, mentally and physically, try this Don't go on the internet for a weekend.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Put your cell phone in off or airplane mode for a day, saturday, don't turn it on, and you know you'll start getting the jitters like an alcoholic. You'll start getting those nervous feelings like somebody who's trying to quit smoking. You'll be like like, oh, my god, I just just one more chocolate. I gotta. I'm a chocoholic, I've got to have my, my candy fix. You know, it's that addictive. You know what I'm saying. People are going to reject to me outright and say, oh, that's wrong, it's not impossible, no, no, no. Well, a lot of people have been radicalized. They they don't know it People who can walk away from the internet or put limits on the internet or can shut off their cell phone. They have balanced health. How many of us, when that cell phone rings, we have to answer it. You know we're scrambling around to answer the phone and and you know, maybe we're in traffic, we're going over the lines, or or we're it?

Douglas James Cottrell:

you know we're scrambling around to answer the phone and and, uh, you know, maybe we're in traffic, we're going over the lines, or or we're. You know, maybe we're texting or typing and we shouldn't be. Well, we're talking, you know, and not me, not neither do I but, anyway, don't hold me to that, but anyway, uh, the long and the short of it is people can't do it. That cell phone controls us. Now, kids including my family children, grandchildren, their whole life is on that cell phone.

Douglas James Cottrell:

True pictures of every celebration, every moment, from the day the moment they were born until just when they went back to school. Pictures, pictures, pictures, pictures. Pictures. Face recognition, face recognition, face recognition somebody told me you can make seven clicks and you can find. Anyone else can find out more about you than you know about yourself Because you're constantly photographed.

Douglas James Cottrell:

And wherever you are, that little spy in your pocket we call our beloved cell phone is communicating with someone. Well, how about some organization, some entity? Every second of every day, we sleep with our phones, we go to the washroom with our phones, we make love with our phones, we eat with our phones, we travel with our phones, we're everywhere we go. So if a totalitarian society wanted to have, you know, tabs on everybody, well, this is a good deal, because we're paying that monthly fee for that phone and it's keeping dabs on us, okay. So back to the point.

Douglas James Cottrell:

How do we have mental health? Well, again, first of all, find it. If you're not radicalized and you're not, um, you're not into some, um, you know, you're not fixated on your cell phone or the news you know, know it's that you have to find out something, you have to be aware of something, you're hooked. What is being given to you. You do not know where it's coming from. You do not know the source.

Douglas James Cottrell:

There was a little person, a little lady I should say not a little person, but a young lady on television exposing that she was a former Russian operative. Colleagues were in a building and every day they were highly paid, but every day they were expected to post 200 to 250 postings of propaganda around the world, pretending to be brits, pretending to be whatever, and the intention was to divide, divide, divide, spread hate, spread hate, spread hate. So mental health is maintaining emotional equilibrium, emotional maturity and understanding that your mind is a sponge. You cannot help your mind. You cannot stop your mind from absorbing something. You sit in a restaurant and if a television set is playing over the head of somebody you're with, you will look up at that television set periodically you can't help it.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Nor could they if there's one above you. So if you're on a date with someone and you keep looking over their head watching a football game, you're in big trouble.

Les Hubert:

Oh yeah, that's happened. Huge trouble.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So mental health is a matter of daily, uh, mind washing, okay, and that means you have to wash your mind of all the negative things that happen to you today. You know that, the resentments, the insults that you hear, they, the comments somebody's rude to you or somebody's indifferent to you or somebody just treats you inappropriately the regular things in life, because not all people are polite. Some people are rude all the time and they well, that's the way they are right. You can't change them, nor is it your mission to do so. So mental health is, moment by moment, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. Uh, to remain balanced, first thing is to become aware is do you listen only to one or two internet sources for your news or for the information coming to you? Do you only listen to, dare I say it, fox News or CNN or MSNBC or CBS or BBC? Do you only listen to one of those stations?

Les Hubert:

Myself personally no.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Then you know, the way out of that is to look at them all.

Les Hubert:

Right right.

Douglas James Cottrell:

When you see a story and you say you know the president's speaking and he's talking about a wonderful know, a meeting with the saudis, and the price of gasoline is coming down, and you switch over to another radio station or, sorry, television station and they're talking about immigrants crossing the border again. Anyway, wait a minute. The big story today is gasoline prices are coming down. The president's made a, a wise deal, going back to theis, irrespective of what they think of them, and the price of oil is coming down because whatever the deal was we'll never find out, but it worked. You know, increased production price goes down, holdback production price goes up, and so somehow President Biden managed to pull off a wonderful relief of getting gas prices to come down. Ever since he went there, prices have been steadily coming down. I'm not a Democrat and I'm not picking sides here. I'm just saying this is a fact. But if you go to another station, you'll see that there's criticism of something, something, and it's basically provoking you.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Even though good news is out there you're still going to your favorite station. That is provoking him. The thing to remember my friends, wake up. Those people are making money from you. You don't know it. It seems to be free. When you're watching them online or you're getting their, their daily, um, what could I call their daily, daily feast of information coming on your cell phone. If you look down further on those emails that you're getting, you'll see all kinds of ads. The people are making a fortune who are supplying what truly is provocative information Provocative.

Les Hubert:

Well, you know, you hit the nail right on the head, doug, because not long ago I was watching you know some I won't mention the channel and I was getting upset, and yet I turned it off and I found myself being drawn back to it again and again. I'm thinking oh my God, I'm addicted. What is going on here? I have to stop this now.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Exactly right. You were aware. You woke up and you realized that you were being drawn back in, because human nature wants to know. We're provoked, we're angry, we want to get, even. We want to find out who the bad guy is right and we take sides. And we shouldn't, because from your fingertips forward, my friends, you have no control. It's none of your business, basically. And who cares what somebody said or who cares what somebody got? You know there's a saying about don't care, don't worry about who's in the outhouse who's in? Your house.

Les Hubert:

I like that, pass it on.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So the long and the short of it is. You just mentioned exactly one of the rules. If you're sitting there and you've had a rough day or a good day at work, you're tired and you're watching television and all of a sudden you're becoming engaged. And all of a sudden you're becoming engaged and the person on the, the announcer or the, the anchor reporter, is using words that are belittling, they are dehumanizing, they are name calling and they are giving you their opinion of what some speech rather or comment was.

Douglas James Cottrell:

That's hateful. And you know, lou Dobbs was kicked off his network because he kept referring to the Democrats as fascists all the time, every single time he said Democrat, he said fascist and he lost his job over that. Because? Well, because that was inappropriate. So if you're becoming provoked, and when the program's over you're so steamed that you can't go to sleep at night, you are caught up in the propaganda. My friend, you are being radicalized, you are in jeopardy of having poor mental health and you are suffering. It's not obvious. There's no red flag.

Douglas James Cottrell:

There is nobody saying you're watching too much of this baloney. All this stuff is name-calling and slander and this is not allowed. The First Amendment says free speech. It doesn't mean you can line it through your teeth and slander people all the time.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So the bottom line is, as we, as we try to have balance and have good health, we have to take responsibility for what goes in. The good book tells us beware of what goes through the orifices of your body, your mouth, your eyes, your ears, your nose. Watch out what's coming into your body, because once it goes in your body which is very easy to do it's extremely hard to leave your body. Mentally, emotionally and physically. You have to be on guard. So again, number one, yeah, if you're in the wake up, you know, like holy moly I. I'm sitting here trying to have a relaxing moment and all of a sudden I'm getting fired up about some court case. Judge said this you know, somebody flew immigrants to.

Les Hubert:

Martha's Vineyard yeah.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Martha's Vineyard. Yeah, the point is that, for those people who disagree with me right now, take the challenge. Put your cell phone down for 24 hours, you know, from Friday night till till Sunday morning, and I dare you, I double dare you, to do that. And if you can't do it, other than some emergency coming up. If you can't do that, you're out. Can you, when the phone comes in, can you let it ring and just go to answer? I'll get it later. Okay, can you do that? And finally, the challenge is to switch off your favorite newscast. You don't need to watch it today and maybe you don't need to watch it the day after tomorrow. And if you do watch news on television or on the internet, try to go to the opposition to see what the other side is saying, because this is how you get good news. People who, in the news industry, if they lie, they can be sued, if they slander somebody, they can be sued. The opinion, internet and cable TV shows, you'll hear them. They'll say in my opinion, if this is true, you know, they'll tell you right up front this is our opinion and we have the right and we have the freedom of speech. But they're not telling you factual news. They're telling you what their slant is. And again, why are they doing it? You know, those people are out there that are on cable news. They make $40 million each or more as salaries. Okay, think about it. They're out there pretending to be your friends, but what they're really doing is they're making gigantic money because immediately on cable news, immediately on cable news, there is an instantaneous analytic or numbers, of how many people are watching that show.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Las vegas. They used to be able to tell who the best entertainers were because after the show, the people would go back out and they would start betting again and they could tell by that first hour after they saw a performance when, the amount of the volume or the amount of money that was spent on the machines or at the tables. They could tell who the good entertainers were because the entertainers would be bring people in who've been betting all afternoon or evening and they're you know a little. You know, not everybody wins in las vegas, that is to say, the people who are sitting in the seats and at the tables. Not everybody wins. Maybe once in a while somebody does, or maybe they're really good guys too, but most, most people that win in las vegas are those people that own the buildings. So the point being is that they can tell who are the best entertainers for their establishment because of how much money is bet immediately after the show ends and the people go back out to the tables.

Douglas James Cottrell:

The same when people are watching horrendous slander and news and propaganda that's feeding people. That, as you so wisely said, my friend, I was getting angry. It was provoking me in your own home, all by yourself, you're getting angry and you're sitting there watching what television or something, or you're watching a story online. That is a slippery slope into mental illness. You're not balanced, you're not mentally strong. You're on a slippery slope to being let's say, with the propagandists, to being radicalized. Some people, the lower-minded people 15 I understand believe in q anon religiously, and we know that that's a fake organization, probably comes out of north korea or someplace, but there are 15 people who believe that as if they believe the Bible. No.

Douglas James Cottrell:

I'm not trying to upset the people in QAnon. I'm not trying to say they're wrong, I'm right. I'm trying to say there are people who believe in this and they've never met anyone who has done what they say they have done, committed horrendous crimes. They've never gone to the police or to have the FBI or the CIA arrest people that they say are drinking the blood of little babies and stuff like that.

Announcer:

None of that's happened.

Douglas James Cottrell:

But those people religiously believe it as if it's a religion and it competes apparently with the world's great religions in the country. So I'm not, again, not trying to take sides in whatever I'm trying to say. That, in my opinion, is absolute nonsense and there seems to be proof of that. And you know, I've invited Mr QAnon to come on my show many times so far he's called me up and said we're coming on your show, we're going to prove to you who we are. That's not happening, but anyway, I could be wrong.

Douglas James Cottrell:

But the idea is that if you're sitting in your living room and you're getting angry and you're the only one in the room, you're in trouble. You are being radicalized, you are being mentally stimulated into the negative side, you are getting mentally sick, you're mentally imbalanced. It doesn't mean that you're not intelligent and a good person and all that you are. But wake up. You have an addiction and that addiction, like all addictions, is going to lead you into poor health. You're in the wake up. Wake up, put your cell phone down. Don't look at your favorite news station. Listen to the other side, see what they have to say. Prove your point by trying to prove the other side wrong in a nice balanced way, and if you can do that without getting upset, you are mentally healthy. You get a good bill of health from me.

Les Hubert:

So in wrapping this up, doug so it sounds like you're talking about objectifying the news In other words, triangulate, get as many sources as possible so you can stay objective, stay balanced. I compare it to when I was getting angry and I started to realize why am I angry? And then I thought back to the days of Walter Cronkite, ted Koppel. I mean they were not opinion people, they just gave the news wonderful news. I mean they were really good at what they did, even though it was sometimes harsh news that you had to hear. It was just the news. And I thought, my God, I've lost that. I've lost that objectivity.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So thank you for touching upon great podcast and I'm sure many people learn from this.

Les Hubert:

It makes perfect sense because you should not be provoked, you should be informed Exactly.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Yeah, and so when you when your newscast, when there's some wonderful story coming out about something happening in the world, and you flip on your favorite newscast or cable TV or internet and they're talking about migrants coming across the border again, it's like wait a minute, the big story today is something about the royal family, something about OPEC, something about international trade, something about the Tesla cars and something about another rocket ship going to the moon or something like that. But whose business is it that you're interested in? Do you really care what somebody said in the white house or what somebody's else said?

Les Hubert:

Right.

Douglas James Cottrell:

This is ridiculous. Back in the days of newscasters, you know, Walter concrete was a wonderful man. It was a trusted voice and he said it like it was. Now we have white people sitting around slandering, insulting, catcalling, making fun of politicians or policy. That's not news.

Les Hubert:

That's high school BS.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So are you informed or are you provoked? Are you happy? Listen to some good news in the world, because we're going places. The world is is marching forward with all the trials and tribulations. That what you should really be and that's I'm going to end this by saying you should really be concerned about what's coming at us weather extremes, shortages of food, differences in the climate, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods and fires. This is what is happening today in our violent earth. The earth is a violent place. All these things are happening and we're in our neighborhoods, we're in our countries and we're feeling very comfortable. But we'll be talking more about this in the wake up. But are you informed or are you provoked? Because if you're provoked, somebody else is in control of your mind. Wake up.

Announcer:

Thank you very much for listening to Wake Up. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you'll be notified when a new episode is posted, and we'd greatly appreciate your review of our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts to let others know about the great content we're producing. For more about Dr Douglas's self-development classes, books and other related products, please visit his website douglasjamescartrellcom. Until next time, we wish you all of God's blessings health, wealth and peace of mind.