What is FOMO Syndrome & How to Overcome it?

In this competitive world every individual is in the race to get better from his or her peer in every form. Previously, this race for success and glory was only limited in the corporate world where individuals would not hesitate from putting that extra yard to get better from his or her competitor. Unfortunately, now this so called competitive spirit and do something better than your peers has trickled slowly but surely into our daily lives and have occupied our personal space as well.

The main contributing factor for this is the social media as people tend to have hosts of friends who are on their friends list who post pictures and videos of a holiday, a picnic, or parties which they might have attended. This makes an individual who is not able to do the things his or her friends have been doing feel sad and depressed.

This is what is termed as FOMO Syndrome where FOMO stands for “Fear of Missing Out.” The individual feels jealousy trickling inside his mind looking at the accomplishments of the peers. While we think we are connected to all our friends from near and far what we are not able to identify is that we are getting disconnected from ourselves. In fact, the promotions and other celebrations of our peers are no longer an event to feel happy about but has become more of a stressor.

This is so because it makes us want to work even harder to match their accomplishments resulting in FOMO Syndrome. We start spending more time towards reading and seeing what others are doing rather than spending time with our loved ones. People with FOMO Syndrome always want to be one up from their friends when it comes to accomplishments and celebrations to such an extent that they forget about the joy that one gets with spending even a little bit of quality time with our loved ones.

FOMO Syndrome can become so rampant in an individual that it may lead to performance anxiety and even depression. People with FOMO Syndrome eventually get to a point where they become less efficient and less connected with others.

FOMO Syndrome is not something which one cannot beat. There are definitely ways to overcome FOMO Syndrome provided one identifies the problem he or she has.

The first presenting feature of FOMO Syndrome is the sadness that one experiences when looking at the accomplishments of others. The best way to deal with it is to distract the mind away from it. You can do things that you enjoy like going for a small outing with family, listening to some soothing light music after work, reading books that you like. These are only some of the things that you can do to distract yourself from stress and help you get rid of FOMO Syndrome.

Staying away from social medial for some time is also a decent way of overcoming FOMO Syndrome. Social media is not bad but relying on it just for the sake of feeling happy is not a wise idea and should be avoided. Spending some time on Facebook or Instagram is okay but that should be it. One should not dig deep into what has been posted by friends and delve on it. Gradually over time with this practice you can get rid of FOMO Syndrome.

Focusing on good things around your environment is also something that may make you feel happy. Things like doing gardening on weekends if you cannot get away on an outing, watching a good movie with family and kids, and doing things that take your attention away from the stressors of performance and not being able to do what others are doing is a good way to get rid of FOMO Syndrome.

Try to spend as less time as possible on the computer or your phone when at home to help you in getting de-stressed and get rid of FOMO Syndrome.