Building Healthy Digital Habits with Dr. Faye Begeti

Episode Transcript

Dr. Correa:
From the American Academy of Neurology, I'm Dr. Daniel Correa.

Dr. Peters:
And I am Dr. Katy Peters, and this is the Brain and Life Podcast.

Dr. Correa:
Welcome back, or welcome to the Brain and Life podcast. We're so glad you're joining us. This episode, we're going to start with a few listener questions. How are you doing today, Katy?

Dr. Peters:
I'm doing great. I'm running around the hospital. It's actually staff appreciation day in the hospital, and they had some puppy dogs that people could pet. I got to pet a wonderful black lab named Toshi, and just got back from rounding with my wonderful patients. How about you?

Dr. Correa:
Well, that's nice. I'm having a little bit of an easier day, not as much running around as you. I'm at the office getting a few things done, but I'm not getting a chance to pet any dogs. I miss that. When I get home today, I'll get some time with my pets.
So we're going to start with some listener questions this week. And to start off, we have a question from Samantha R. Samantha said, "Hi, Brain and Life Pod. I loved your episode with Cole and Charisma. I really love finding accounts on social media that share my same values and are going through the same things as me. I also see that there are always people showing how bad social media can be for us. Is there anyone saying how great it can be for our brains, or should I really do everything I can to limit my time there? Thank you, Sam."

Dr. Peters:
Samantha, truly appreciate you listening to the podcast, and thank you for listening to the episode with Cole and Charisma. Our podcast has featured social media influencers like Cole and Charisma and Brooke Eby. They extol the virtues of sharing with their audience about their neurologic conditions. And likewise, they get from their audience new things that they can learn. So for them, having a platform is highly important and they're invested in it. But I think, like all habits, balance is a good way to practice. Daniel, what are your thoughts on this?

Dr. Correa:
Yeah. I mean, there are of course ways that social media and other online communities can help connect people from unique perspectives and backgrounds. And in those ways, there's clear benefits. Many people who may have felt socially isolated and not able to identify someone with a similar condition or going through a similar experience through social media might build communities far-flung from across the country or world. And there have been clear benefits to growing your support community and even support communities through discussion boards and websites, like PatientsLikeMe. Through hashtags on social media and other various platforms, people with different conditions can connect with each other.
Though we have to acknowledge, of course, that there are disadvantages. Some studies have shown it depended on how much time you're spending on social media, and that moderate users who are not on all the time and are limiting some of their use might have much more benefits than a heavy user. And now each study, it seems like, defines moderate and heavy use. So maybe paying attention to how it affects your life, and how much it's affecting your social connections, and how much you're getting positively from it.
But also people present, and I think we know this, that they present an edited version of themself and their life. This could sensationalize aspects of their life in an overly positive way, or sometimes sensationalize at negative aspects of something they're going through. And that might amplify how we feel negatively about something that we share in common with that person.
I think online groups and social media communities are a great place to start and find some support, but it's good also to make sure that we're going beyond that and connecting with more people and others, whether that's small in-person support groups and small group communities within our local area, or if it's really unique backgrounds and perspectives, online discussion groups where you can really get into a discussion and get real with each other, offer understanding, ask questions, offer support. And there, there's less risk of the haters and the anonymous commentators who really don't even have an understanding of your own experience.
And there are other potential social media benefits. Many of these are actually actively undergoing research. This can include the public health understanding and education, versus some of the possible misinformation that can occur, increasing ways for communities and our public to engage with each other versus some social isolation from being online, whether it's your computer or your phone more. Social media is being used to recruit people to help participate and engage in research studies or in different community events. It helps communicate between colleagues like us. And it can help artists collaborate. But we want to still make sure that all of these things ... It's amplifying the ways we can connect together as a community and in real life and between real people.

Dr. Peters:
And it's also how we're connecting often with our listeners, because our listeners do follow us online. So I would encourage them to check out our Instagram. Hopefully we put things out there in doses that are palatable and also appropriate for everyone. So we have another question, Daniel. This is from Cheryl B. She says, "I receive Brain and Life and you help me in many ways. I think I've hit my plateau as far as healing. Do you have any suggestions for what I could do next? Where can I go to learn how to help my brain capacity and increase my function after TBI?" Which is traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Correa:
Cheryl, I want to thank you for sharing your own experiences and the challenge that you're having, navigating your rehab recovery from your experience of a traumatic brain injury. And I totally get how it can feel, that when you hit a plateau, many things either feel like you're not making progress, you're maybe slipping, or there's even a loss of any sense of progress.
However, remember, our bodies and brains are changing constantly at an amazing pace. In a way, it's the change of our bodies that we can count on, and that's the constant in our reality. Every day and every time, we're only with our bodies and our brain in its current state. When something happens, whether it's an injury or something else, we can't always necessarily think of the idea of going back. We're always growing in many different ways, and I hope that ... It sounds like you're incorporating that into yourself.
And the work you're doing to strengthen your body and brain and optimize your brain activity each day and week will always still benefit you. When things are starting to feel a little stale or less motivating or you're not really feeling you're getting as much of a benefit from an activity or an exercise you're doing, whether that's cognitive or physical, try mixing it into other activities. Often, it's the things that feel a little hard that are the places and the edge for our growth.
And in there, if it's a cognitive task, maybe those cognitive tasks or games that feel a little tough, those are the types of activities that you can try to work at finding and incorporating 5 to 10 minutes every few days. And that might help you feel like you're making more progress. And it depends really on what are the challenges or the things that you notice. And look for things that you also have ... It's a little tough, but also a little bit of enjoyment, and so that makes it easier and more motivating to incorporate into your activities.
And this can be the same in exercise. And we talk about working up to 150 minutes of moderate exercise. So that's where we're not able to have as much of a conversation like we're having now. You're a little bit out of breath. But as those things become easier, then every three to six weeks or so, look at adjusting how much time you're taking to rest, adjusting the time you're in the activity, the organization of the structure of how you're doing that activity, whether it's cognitive or physical. If maybe you were doing it 15 or 20 minutes, you can try longer. You can try doing it at different times of the day. And all those things push that edge of the challenge, and it gives you a space to grow into. And hopefully, I think, that's helpful in thinking of and noticing how you and your body are reacting and responding to the different activities you are doing for yourself. What about you, Katy?

Dr. Peters:
Yeah, I think those are really helpful tips. And I think the one thing that happens, particularly with my patients that I recommend, is that they may have been to a physical therapist or an occupational therapist or a speech therapist or even a cognitive therapy session with occupational therapy, where they feel like they initially plateaued and they just sort of stop. And I encourage people to go back and maybe revisit a different pathway or question or challenge they're having. A lot of times, maybe you worked on strength. Maybe now you want to work on your gait and your balance. So remember, there's different components of your neurologic function.
I would also recommend our listeners to check out our podcast with Dr. Sandeep Vaishnavi. He has a book called Healing the Traumatized Brain, which really goes into everything that you just said. He details the concept of the specialty neuropsychiatry, and he tells us about what we can do to heal, both physically, emotionally, and mentally. Every journey of course is different, but the tips from Dan are right in line with what Dr. Vaishnavi recommended. And you can also check out his book.
Now sometimes, I like to read a book. I'm a big fan of turning the pages and writing in my book or maybe having a fun bookmark, but I also enjoy listening to them on my phone. And it sort of goes back to Samantha's question about how we engage with our devices. So Daniel, how about you? Do you like audiobooks? And what other ways do you interact with your devices, such as audiobooks or just also with social media?

Dr. Correa:
Yeah. I mean, I do like print books. Now I've become to appreciate them more and more over the years since we spend so much time either with our phone screens or computer screens. It's nice to give your eyes a break with the page of the book. But I also like audiobooks for that same reason. I can explore and just close my eyes and jump into a world, whether it's a fictional novel or listen to really great people on their perspectives with nonfiction audiobooks. And I tend to like the audiobooks that are read by the authors. I really like that feel, like I'm really hearing it from them. They're a great alternative to online and phone use. They give your eyes a break, like I said. And most recently, my wife and I have been listening to and enjoying Barbra Streisand's new book, My Name is Barbra. Yeah. It's read by her, and it doesn't even feel like a book. It feels like she's having an amazing conversation with you, and she's taking you through the many stories of her life on and off the stage.

Dr. Peters:
That is so much fun. In preparation for the podcast with Ed Begley Jr., I got to listen to his book that was read by him. So I agree. When it's the author, it's a lot of fun to hear their stories, and to hear the tone and the texture in their voice. It really makes you feel like you're having just a conversation with them.

Dr. Correa:
Yeah. Really, they're a great resource to go to and great to find that there's many even places where you might find free audiobooks of classics. And those are a great place also to start.

Dr. Peters:
So how about other ways you use your phone or social media or interacting with your devices? How do you use them? Do you use them when you transition from day to day? Do you use it when you transition from home to work, or work to home? How do you utilize your devices, Daniel?

Dr. Correa:
Yeah. I mean, there is the standard thing now. You see people standing in a line anywhere or on the subway, and it's almost like if you're not on your phone, you can watch and start to count how quickly people pull out their phones. So sometimes I've started to notice that in myself, and I try to resist immediately pulling out my phone. But that's one thing that I'm working on.
But yeah, it's often in that quiet setting, whether it's the subway or waiting for a meeting or something else. I might go and unfortunately spend my time checking emails. But it's often the bigger challenges, are those transitions like you've mentioned. On the way to work, on the subway, not driving, or heading home. Or maybe once I get home, maybe my brain's still going, thinking about work and other things and activities or trying to get back and finish up those last emails or things that I just think I really should get to. And unfortunately, those things are just the ways that it makes it tough to make that transition.
And then I find I end up sometimes on my phone or online, or maybe that's the TV, trying to transition out of relaxation mode. Maybe that challenge of motivating myself away from the Netflix and chill mode and preventing the next autoplay of whatever I'm watching. That's always another challenge. Try to have a moment to think after watching an episode or something. Could I step outside for a walk or take the dog for a walk now, instead of just rolling into the next episode? Sometimes that's a nice quick break and gives you a challenge to think if there's other things and activities that you want to be doing.
But I think one thing I've noticed for myself, and I would caution for our listeners, it's the self-talk sometimes in these transitions, or when we're thinking about using social media or getting away from it. Just pay attention to the choices that we're making, but also trying to be kind and cautious with the kind of self-talk that we have to each other or to ourselves. And this thought process and this self-talk sometimes can be in a way where we're actually challenging and hurting ourselves. So I think that's something that I've noticed, and a challenge. And as I've become more aware of it, I just ask the questions much more. Like I said, is this time maybe to step away and take a walk or take the dog out, instead of making a harsher judgment of myself? What about you?

Dr. Peters:
Well, this makes me think about ... Just listening to what you said and about how you have to step away from your phone and how long you're engaging in that activity, I actually got to speak with our next guest, an expert, Dr. Faye Begeti. She's a neuroscientist in the United Kingdom. And she authored a book called The Phone Fix: The Brain-Focused Guide to Building Healthy Digital Habits and Breaking Bad Ones. One of the things that she mentioned really over and over again in her book and also in our conversation is that when we engage on social media and we engage with our devices, time is passing. And sometimes you don't realize how much time is actually gone once you've been playing that little game on your iPhone or scrolling through the myriads of cat videos. That's what usually happens to me, Daniel.
But her book looks at the neuroscientific aspects of how we engage with the phones and devices. And she acknowledges technology is here to stay and that it is useful and has good parts to it, but she rather reminds us on how to avoid those bad habits, and develop good, healthy digital habits in our day-to-day activities. And I would say number one is really being mindful of how much time you spend utilizing those devices. So I can't wait for you to listen to this. And I'm sure Samantha, who gave our first question today, this is right up her alley.

Dr. Correa:
Completely. It seems set up exactly. We just happened to get this listener question and also we're working on this episode, so we were happy to answer it and roll right into our discussion with Dr. Begeti. Thank you so much for submitting these questions. We look forward to more. And Katy, thanks for joining us on a tough and difficult day. I know that you had to join us from a different office, and so we have a little bit different audio quality, but we're glad to continue to bring these discussions to you, our listeners.
Can't get enough of the Brain and Life Podcast? Keep the conversation going on social media when you follow @NeuroDrCorrea and @BrainandLifeMag, or visit brainandlife.org.

Dr. Peters:
Hello, everyone in the Brain and Life Podcast audience. I'm very delighted to be joined by our guest today, Dr. Faye Begeti. She is a neurologist and neuroscientist at the Oxford University Hospitals in the UK. She completed her medical degree and PhD at the University of Cambridge, and has since continued her research into neurodegenerative diseases alongside seeing her neurology patients. She has a great Instagram account. It is @the_brain_doctor, and she started sharing with her audience about neurology, about brain disorders, and now she has over 135,000 followers. And so today, we're really going to be discussing not only her role as a neurologist and a neuroscientist, but also her recent book that I just downloaded and started listening to. It's called The Phone Fix: The Brain-Focused Guide to Building Healthy Digital Habits and Breaking Bad Ones. Welcome to Brain and Life, Dr. Begeti.

Faye Begeti:
Thank you. I'm really glad to be here.

Dr. Peters:
Before we start discussing your book, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and where you're joining us from today?

Faye Begeti:
So I'm based in Oxford in the United Kingdom. I did my medical degree at the University of Cambridge, and I did some research alongside that, which culminated in a PhD. And now I work as a neurology doctor in Oxford.

Dr. Peters:
Can you tell us a little more about your book, The Phone Fix?

Faye Begeti:
I thought about what kind of book would be a good idea to write. And there's a big digital debate going on at the moment, and I find that it's very polarized. Some people are very, very pro-technology and some people are very anti-technology. They think that phones or social media or any other aspect of technology has essentially destroyed society. And as usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle. And I thought a lot of the debate centers around what it does to ourselves, to our brains, to our mental health. And me being in a position where I am a doctor, I see patients, I've also done extensive research, I'm well-praised to assess the evidence and see where we're at.
And I don't have a horse in this game. I'm not paid by any big corporations. I don't have any sort of disclosures. I don't have any reason to be biased in any way. And I just wanted to produce an evidence-based guide, but with some practical elements to it because as doctors, we don't just want to say, "Oh, this is what the research shows." We want to tell people what to do, how they can help themselves, how can they make their situation better.

Dr. Peters:
And when I was listening to that, you really truly say you're not against technology. You actually say you adopt technology. You're pro-phone.

Faye Begeti:
Yeah. No, I love technology. I think a lot of us do romanticize the past when we didn't have phones, but there were a lot of difficulties associated as well. And technology has made a lot of things better and easier. And essentially, the effect that technology has on us comes down to the way that we use it. After all, it's a tool just like many other tools.

Dr. Peters:
And I agree with you. It is just a tool. I was actually in one of the first clinical trials ... This shows you how old I am, first clinical trials using a Blackberry, so long time ago, to look at medical records and to do note-keeping. And I was in a clinical trial as a medical student to see if medical students would use that technology. And it was through, I believe, an app called Epocrates at that time. I don't even know if it was an app yet. But it was introducing us to the technology, and would you as a medical student use it. I think another thing that's wonderful about your book is you really make science, or particularly neuroscience, approachable to I guess anybody. Do you use that in your day-to-day when you're talking to patients about their neurologic disorders?

Faye Begeti:
Absolutely. And in addition to thinking about having a patient sitting across the table from me and how I would explain this to them in a way that they would understand, I'm also essentially also talking to my younger self, as somebody who would be interested in all those concepts but didn't have all the knowledge that I have now, as accessible as it is today.

Dr. Peters:
And you mentioned in the title you want to promote some healthy habits but then break some bad ones. Before we go to the healthy habits, what are some of those bad habits on digital platforms that we should break?

Faye Begeti:
So a lot of it is individual and person-specific. And I do invite the listeners and hopefully the readers of the book to assess their situation. What kind of habits do you find disruptive on your phone? And a lot of the time, what you have to do is you have to think about the context, why and where you're using your phone. Using your phone is not inherently bad. You can do your online shopping, you have to check emails, you have to check messages. You have so many functions that you have to check, but are you using it in inappropriate locations or situations, or are you using it for the wrong reason? Are you using it as a distraction, for example, as a form of escapism in a way that it isn't good?
I think the way we should think about phones, we should think of them similar to food. So we all have a diet, and some of our diet is necessity and some of our diet is down to enjoyment. And we certainly mustn't pathologize necessity. That's what we need. But we shouldn't criticize enjoyment either, because I think a lot of the trouble when it comes to phone use and negative habits has been from people worshiping the altar of productivity, that we should be productive 24/7. And that's just not possible. And it's okay to be entertained, intentionally so, and doing so in the right place at the right time.

Dr. Peters:
I agree. I like the entertainment aspect. I also like the fact that I can get my emails. We're both working in the inpatient right now. It's really important for us to be connected to our patients, to see their labs, to see their brain scans. So I have to say that I use it definitely for work and for pleasure. But what about some of those healthy habits? What can we do on a day-to-day basis that would be healthy habits for our digital use?

Faye Begeti:
Yeah, absolutely. And I also use my phone on a daily basis, both for work and for entertainment. And I just wanted to say one of the biggest changes that I've seen in my neurology practice is the ability of patients to provide us with videos. Someone might say this patient had a seizure. You try and get a description out of them, but if you have a video, that is gold. Or if they're having leg movements at night or if they have a tremor or if ... Whatever is happening, if it's intermittent and someone has taken a video, it really, really has helped my diagnostic practice.
But coming back to the question about the healthy habits. Think about the habits that you want to cultivate. Towards the last part of my book, I talk about things like focus, mental health, and sleep. And for example, if you want to focus on something, is your phone disrupting you with that? Should you have a certain location that you use to focus and a different location, for example, where you check social media?
Sometimes with problematic habits, what people often find is that the way it's encoded in autopilot regions of the brain, it becomes a very go-to action. So what you'll find is somebody checking social media 80 times a day for one-minute intervals, not really doing anything there in a way that's very frustrating to them. Could you do, for example, two or three intentional checks per day, rather than those 80 minuscule checks? Would that be better for you? So those are the questions that my book asks, and it invites people to reconsider and reprogram the kind of habit sequences that they have stored.

Dr. Peters:
You can, in a way, almost compartmentalize ... Maybe an app that maybe involves relaxation, and have that be in the relaxation space. I know that I use sometimes a meditation app. And it helps me because it's so accessible because it's on my phone, but really it's for sleep, whereas maybe a time that I want to be entertained, that's when I'm looking at TikTok or looking at my friends' photos on Instagram. And I think that that idea of compartmentalization is really good in so many different ways, of not taking necessarily work home for patients, and to have a balance between that work and home life. What are your thoughts on that?

Faye Begeti:
Absolutely. So I mean, it's very important that we create boundaries, both between our work and our rest and entertainment and all those things. There was an interesting set of studies that I read in the research to my book that show that if people do six hours of complex tasks versus doing simple tasks, blood flow in a region of the brain, in a region called the prefrontal cortex, which is the region that we use for our attention, our motivation, our willpower, complex thinking, long-term decisions, reduces. And as a result of that, people were more likely to make impulsive decisions, those people that did the complex tasks specifically.
And that happens to us at the end of the day to an extent because, I mean, in the study they had six hours of complex tasks, which actually weren't very complex at all compared to most people's working day, and a small lunch break. And most of us overwork that by so, so much. And you can think why at the end of the day we're so exhausted we make impulsive decisions regarding food, regarding staying up, regarding accessing the closest object next to us, which is our phone, and scrolling for ages rather than doing something that will benefit us in the long term. So it's very, very important to get adequate mental rest.

Dr. Peters:
I agree. I agree completely. This is really the next question I had, is what is this use of social media doing to our brains? And I would predict, depending on your age, there could be different effects. Can you comment on that more, about really what is social media doing to our brain and the brain chemistry?

Faye Begeti:
Yes, absolutely. And again, the key to note is that there is not a single rule that will apply to everybody. They have done studies using adolescents, for example. And the effect of social media actually is much smaller than what people think. You'll have a headline saying social media is destroying a generation, but actually there's very large studies that show that social media accounts for not 0.4% of adolescents' wellbeing. And this is a very large study that studied over 350,000 adolescents, both in the UK and the US using large databases. And of course, that's much smaller than what people expect.
And that actually goes to show that our physical world is actually more important for our mental health than the digital world. And this study really showed that. It showed that adolescents who are getting into fights, who are drinking, who are taking drugs, were being bullied, actually suffer a lot more than any effects social media can have. And the study actually made the headlines, because it showed that even wearing glasses actually has a bigger effect on somebody's wellbeing than social media. It just goes to show, physical world over digital world.
But that being said, that is an average. And it doesn't have the same effect on every single person. For example, there's another study I want to mention, a much smaller group of people, 387 adolescents, I think. And they looked at the effect of social media on their wellbeing. And they found that around 44%, there was no effect, about 26% had positive effects, and 28% had a negative effect. So we'll see that not 0.4% as an average, but actually the majority of people have no effect, some people have a positive effect, and there's a proportion of people that have a negative effect.
So in my opinion, having researched this subject extensively, rather than going with these simplistic headlines and saying, "Oh, it's destroying a generation," the questions we should be asking is, "Why are some people responding badly to social media? How can we identify them? How can we help them? Are they using social media in a different way to those other people?" And I think trying to untangle some of the nuance is where we need to go next.

Dr. Peters:
So how do you think we'll do that? Will there be almost a tool of ... Similar to when we ask questions of patients, like how much have you been drinking or the CAGE questionnaire, is there going to be a CAGE version for social media usage?

Faye Begeti:
There could be. And I do invite readers of the book to have a little think about their own current situation because after all, we know this, the patient is an expert in themselves. Of course, doctors are the experts in the conditions, but they're an expert in what's happening in their head and in their body. So they need to trust their instinct to a certain extent. Try to ignore a lot of those scary headlines, because they're not actually very helpful. And maybe have a little think about what content you are accessing. So what is the content, and the habits of the way you are accessing the content, so the why and the where. And think about what elements of that might be problematic, and trying to reprogram those.

Dr. Peters:
I agree. And what do you think, I guess, the next step of ... What is the future of engaging with social media? I know in brain health, there's this whole world of artificial intelligence, how they use ChatGPT or virtual reality worlds. How is that going to impact our brains and our brain health?

Faye Begeti:
It's a really interesting question. I mean, I can tell you my thoughts. I'm not sure whether I fully know the answer to that. There's certainly a lot of positive things. For example, AI can be used positively in hospital. We know that we have a lot more admin to do and a lot less clinicians. We have more treatments, more charts, more things to administer.
And for example, I was recently in a conference where we discussed AI, and we thought about in what aspects can it help. For example, we have first or second-year junior doctors writing a discharge letter for the patient when they exit hospital. Could AI just compile all the documentation from all our ward rounds that we document every day anyway, make that discharge document, and then the doctor can read it and edit it at the end, make sure it's correct. So I think it's not necessarily that AI would ever replace a doctor, but would it be able to save doctors some time?
And regarding virtual reality, there are really interesting studies going on with virtual reality in neurorehabilitation as well as virtual reality in looking at the hippocampus and the way with spatial navigation because that is the first part of the brain to be affected in dementia, specifically in Alzheimer's disease. And there's very interesting things happening there. So a lot of this technology does depend on how we use it, how we apply it to help us.

Dr. Peters:
And I want to remind our listeners, when we talked to actor Craig Russell about his brain tumor, and then we also talked to Dr. Jonathan Sherman, who's a neurosurgeon. He's actually using augmented and virtual reality to show his patients and their loved ones where the tumor is. He actually cruises through the brain and how he'll do the surgery. So he's using it less of a tool to do the surgical procedure, but more to help his patients and their loved ones understand the experience and to be part of the process. It is really, really an engagement tool for them. Now, your book is great. I'm halfway through. What other resources are available to our listeners if they want to practice better digital habits, besides reading your book?

Faye Begeti:
Besides reading my book, that's a tough one. They could check out my Instagram page. There is another book that has come out by a psychology professor here in the United Kingdom called Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time. And I would recommend that book. I've not finished reading it yet, but I've read a lot of his work. And it just delivers a really balanced approach to digital habits. I think what we don't want to do is we don't want to make something seem more threatening. There's actual studies show that if you come to a neurologist and you've suffered a mild brain injury and a neurologist tells you that it's a severe brain injury, you will do worse just because of that threatening language. It's something called diagnosis threat. So we don't want to scare people regarding technology. We don't want to scare them regarding digital habits. We don't want to call it an addiction. We want to empower people to create positive change.

Dr. Peters:
And to be their partners, right? And to be a good steward. And I think you're being a good steward. You mentioned your Instagram page, @the_brain_doctor. What's great about social media is not only do you get to put content out there, essentially people that your followers are able to send you comments and advice back. What have you learned from your followers?

Faye Begeti:
I've learned a lot. People on social media are often not shy about speaking their mind. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I don't get a lot of hate or even ... I don't get even very little. But sometimes I do get the old comment that shows me that somebody has misunderstood what I'm trying to say. And I did actually put a few of the concepts that I talk about in my book, I put it out there on social media to just see how it floats. And I did have a few people asking questions in a way that I've realized that they've misunderstood what I've said, and it gave me a chance to explain it better. I think as long as the feedback that you are receiving ... Sometimes it can be a little bit abrupt for some people, but as long as the feedback that you are receiving is not making you feel negative about yourself, because it certainly didn't, you do have a chance to take that on board before your book is published, which I thought was a really great opportunity.

Dr. Peters:
And so I'm going to say that you endorse our podcast, that it's good social media usage.

Faye Begeti:
Absolutely, 100%.

Dr. Peters:
Oh, we needed that endorsement. That's what I really wanted. But again, Dr. Begeti, this was a lot of fun. And again, I can't wait to finish your book, The Phone Fix: The Brain-Focused Guide to Building Healthy Digital Habits and Breaking Bad Ones. And again, you sharing your experience. And thank you for joining us from across the Atlantic Ocean, and would love to have you back in the future.

Faye Begeti:
I absolutely would love to come back.

Dr. Peters:
So again, thank you to our listeners. This is the Brain and Life Podcast, and I am your cohost, Dr. Katy Peters. I'm wishing you all brain wellness. And definitely check out Dr. Begeti's book, whether you get it in paper form or listen to it on your phone. So thank you.

Dr. Correa:
Thank you again for joining us today on the Brand and Life Podcast. Follow and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss our weekly episodes. You can also sign up to receive the Brain and Life Magazine for free at brainandlife.org. Don't forget about Brain and Life en Espanol.

Dr. Peters:
Also, for each episode, you can find out how to connect with our team and our guests, along with great resources in our show notes. We love it when we hear your ideas or questions. You can send these in an email to BLpodcast@brainandlife.org and leave us a message at 612-928-6206.

Dr. Correa:
You can also find that information in our show notes, and you can follow Katy and me and the Brain and Life Magazine on many of your preferred social media channels.

Dr. Peters:
And these episodes would not be possible without the Brain and Life Podcast team.

Dr. Correa:
Including Nicole Lussier, our senior manager of public engagement.

Dr. Peters:
Rachel Robertson, our public engagement coordinator, and Twin City Sound, our audio editing partner.

Dr. Correa:
We are your hosts, Dr. Daniel Correa, connecting with you from New York City, and online @NeuroDrCorrea.

Dr. Peters:
And Dr. Katy Peters, joining you from Durham, North Carolina, and online at @KatyPetersMDPhD.

Dr. Correa:
Most importantly, thank you and all of our community members that trust us with their health and everyone living with neurologic conditions.

Dr. Peters:
We hope together we can take steps to better brain health and each thrive with our own abilities every day.

Dr. Correa:
Before you start the next episode, we would appreciate if you could give us five stars and leave a review. This helps others find the Brain and Life Podcast. See you next week.

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