Phone Addiction: Warning Signs And Treatment
Substances Info
Get confidential help 24/7. Call now for:
- Access to licensed treatment centers
- Information on treatment plans
Am I covered for addiction treatment?
Have a confidential, completely free conversation with a treatment provider about your financial options.
Get Help Today & xrarr
If You Have A Smart Speaker Put It To Use
One of the most valuable things about smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo or Google’s Home products is that they help you live a more screen-free life.
Since I got one, I’ve stopped turning on music or podcasts on my phone and will try to answer all basic questions via voice. Generally, using my smart speaker for as many things as possible has kept my smartphone out of my hands for longer periods.
Dont Charge Your Phone Near Your Bed
Want to know the best way to keep your kids off their phones too much? Dont allow them to charge their phones in their bedroom.
Want to know a great way to keep yourself off your phone? Dont charge it in your bedroom.
Many of the negative effects of overuse can be eliminated by keeping your cell phone out of your bedroom. As with many of the items on this list, this is a principle Ive found personally helpful.
You May Like: What Is The Disease Model Of Addiction
Im Even A Writing Some Of This Post On My Phone
January 13, 2022 by Sean Clarke
Its true. Im addicted to my phone and so are you. Lets just admit it! Hey, Im even a writing some of this post on my phone. I guess Ill give myself a pass on that though due to the convenience of being able to wrote blog posts thanks to technology. This point highlights the double edged sword technology has become.
I love tech. Im a real techhead but I have come to admit that I am addict. When we think about addicts, we normally imagine things like alcohol and drugs and people becoming dependant on substances. However, its possible to become addicted to anything and one thing I believe were all becoming addicted to is our phones because they provide us with the same cheap hits of dopamine and are so readily available. The reason I feel this is important to talk about is because it can affect your mental health and occupy a huge amount of your time, mind and energy as well as warp your reality into something unhelpful.
Its important because we only have so much space in our minds and limited bandwidth to use up each day. The average person will admit that they spend at least half of their day looking at their phone. I know I would on some days. That means so much of your available headspace is being used up on just browsing around on your phone aimlessly, absorbing things that probably dont really add much value to you.
You Do Not Mind Responding To Messages Or Checking Your Phone While On A Date
Dates are meant to be occasions where you give your undivided attention to the person you are with.
However, with phone addicts, the situation might be a little different.
They will keep checking their phones and responding to messages even while they are out on a date.
Such behavior definitely seems rude to the other person, especially if they want to talk to you and get to know you better.
Recommended Reading: How To Prevent Drug Addiction
Symptoms Of Mobile Phone Addiction
Heavy smartphone use is very common. Its only when your phone begins to take you away from social interactions, gets in the way of work or becomes a major distraction in daily life that you may have a problem. If you find that youre reaching for your phone to help you feel happier or to fill a void this can also indicate you may be forming an unhealthy and destructive habit.
At Delamere, we take a person-centred, holistic approach to treating phone addiction using a combination of one-to-one-counselling sessions, peer work and group therapy sessions. We treat each person individually and look at their life as a whole to understand their challenges before creating a personalised care plan. As phone addiction is a relatively new phenomenon, we will first assess if you would benefit from therapy.
So, how can you tell if youre addicted to your phone? Its not always about how much time you spend on your mobile. Other behaviours can also point to smartphone addiction. You may find yourself being easily distracted, lying about the amount you use your phone, becoming overly stressed if your battery dies or feeling angry if something, or someone, stops you from using your phone.
Loneliness and insecurity
Some people rely very heavily on their phone to overcome feelings of loneliness and depression, when actually the pressures of social media or misreading of text messages can make these emotions worse.
Lack of sleep
Inability to focus
Becoming self-absorbed
Not A Day Goes By That You Are Without Your Phone
People who are addicted to their phones will not be able to live without it even for a day.
If, by mistake, they ever leave their phones at home and realize midway that they did, then they will make it a point to go back home and fetch it.
These people need to have their phones with them constantly, without which they feel incomplete.
You will know that you are addicted if you always find yourself charging your phone multiple times in a day.
While smart phones are heavily equipped with a lot of apps and other entertainment sources, they consume a lot of battery, especially if used continuously. Data transfers used by most entertainment and social apps tend to drain the battery extremely fast.
Don’t Miss: What To Say To An Addict
Put Your Phone Away When You Walk In The Door
Christopher Mims writes a weekly technology column for The Wall Street Journala job that certainly requires the use of tech on a consistent basis. His simple and proven way to keep life in healthy balance with his cell phone is to put it in a kitchen cabinet at the end of the workday. In his words, The more you physically remove the phone, the more you can build a habit of having some ability to ignore it when its on your person.
When you finish your day of work, put your phone in a drawer or cabinet. This is a helpful practice for all people, but I think it is especially important if you have kids or a spouse at home in need of our undivided attention.
Do Not Disturb: How I Ditched My Phone And Unbroke My Brain
-
Send any friend a story
As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
Give this article
- 492
- Read in app
My name is Kevin, and I have a phone problem.
And if youre anything like me and the statistics suggest you probably are, at least where smartphones are concerned you have one, too.
I dont love referring to what we have as an addiction. That seems too sterile and clinical to describe whats happening to our brains in the smartphone era. Unlike alcohol or opioids, phones arent an addictive substance so much as a species-level environmental shock. We might someday evolve the correct biological hardware to live in harmony with portable supercomputers that satisfy our every need and connect us to infinite amounts of stimulation. But for most of us, it hasnt happened yet.
Ive been a heavy phone user for my entire adult life. But sometime last year, I crossed the invisible line into problem territory. My symptoms were all the typical ones: I found myself incapable of reading books, watching full-length movies or having long uninterrupted conversations. Social media made me angry and anxious, and even the digital spaces I once found soothing werent helping. I tried various tricks to curb my usage, like deleting Twitter every weekend, turning my screen grayscale and installing app-blockers. But I always relapsed.
Also Check: Can You Be Addicted To Nyquil
Smartphone Or Internet Addiction Can Also Negatively Impact Your Life By:
Increasing loneliness and depression. While it may seem that losing yourself online will temporarily make feelings such as loneliness, depression, and boredom evaporate into thin air, it can actually make you feel even worse. A 2014 study found a correlation between high social media usage and depression and anxiety. Users, especially teens, tend to compare themselves unfavorably with their peers on social media, promoting feelings of loneliness and depression.
Fueling anxiety. One researcher found that the mere presence of a phone in a work place tends to make people more anxious and perform poorly on given tasks. The heavier a persons phone use, the greater the anxiety they experienced.
Increasing stress. Using a smartphone for work often means work bleeds into your home and personal life. You feel the pressure to always be on, never out of touch from work. This need to continually check and respond to email can contribute to higher stress levels and even burnout.
Exacerbating attention deficit disorders. The constant stream of messages and information from a smartphone can overwhelm the brain and make it impossible to focus attention on any one thing for more than a few minutes without feeling compelled to move on to something else.
Leave It To Run Out Of Battery
My phone is part of my holy trinity, i.e, when I go out I make sure I have my phone wallet and keys. These are the most important things I need on me. However, when Im at home, Im letting my phone run out of battery and not rushing to put it back on charge. Normally Ill charge it up over night so Ive got it for work which Im still doing but when Im at home, Im leaving it on the side to run down when it does and not scrambling to revive it like a paramedic.
Also Check: How To Cure Video Game Addiction
Im Addicted To My Phone But Im Doing Something About It
Phone addiction is a very real thing even if it is something that people joke about a lot. It not only destroys relationships but also erodes individuals mental health and perspective towards the world. Being addicted to your phone wastes your time in the real world and leaves you feeling totally empty. For me, the only solution is to remove yourself from your phone as much as you can, make it less important in your life and do more in the physical world, whether you feel you are addicted or not.
As technology weaves itself into our lives more and more, its going to be even more important to take a step back and understand how it affects our mental health.
What Causes Smartphone Addiction
People who have psychological and emotional issues such as stress, depression, loneliness and social anxiety can easily get addicted to technology. The experiences that smartphones connect us to social media, games, videos, apps can all give us pleasure. Some theorists suggest that by releasing the chemical dopamine in the brain, mobile phones can have a similar effect to when we drink alcohol or take drugs.
As people have become more reliant on their phones in everyday life, the number of people experiencing mobile phone addiction has naturally increased. More business is conducted over smartphones than ever before, and the growth of social media can mean some people spend an average of 3.5 hours per day on their phones.
A recent global survey also showed that the Covid-19 pandemic has increased mobile phone addiction. The study showed that about 70% of internet users, especially young people, were using their smartphones more as a direct result of lockdown. The more we use our phones, the more likely we are to become addicted to them.
Recommended Reading: How To Stop Addiction To Ponography
Going On A Cell Phone Diet
Im Addicted To My Phone How Can I Cut Back
NEW YORK Q: I have my phone with me at all times and check it hundreds of times a day. Are there any proven ways to treat screen addiction?
Smartphone overuse can manifest in many ways.
NEW YORK Q: I have my phone with me at all times and check it hundreds of times a day. Are there any proven ways to treat screen addiction?
Our work, social lives and entertainment have become inextricably tied to our devices, and the pandemic has made matters worse. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in April, for instance, found that among the 81 per cent of adults in the United States who used video calls to connect with others since the beginning of the pandemic, 40 per cent said they felt worn out or fatigued from those calls, and 33 per cent said they have tried to scale back the amount of time they spent on the internet or on their smartphones.
Not all smartphone use is bad, of course. Sometimes, smartphones make us happier, enriched and connect us to other people, said Professor Adam Alter, a marketing and psychology professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University. But many people want to cut back, and experts say there are effective ways to do it.
IS IT REALLY POSSIBLE TO BE ADDICTED TO A SMARTPHONE?
Smartphone overuse can manifest in many ways. Maybe you regularly stay up late scrolling through Instagram or TikTok. Or the allure of your smartphone makes it difficult to be fully present for yourself, your work or those around you.
TAKE A SCREEN FAST.
You May Like: What Is An Addictive Personality
What Are The Signs I’m Addicted To My Phone
If you think you could fall into the category of smartphone addiction, Roberts says some helpful questions to ask yourself include:
- Does your phone seriously interfere with sleep?
- Are you constantly checking it?
- Has certain behaviour become the norm ?
- Is your relationship or work or health suffering?
- Are you constantly checking for messages or checking in on apps?
She also explains the criteria for addiction includes needing to “use” more to achieve the desired effect , wanting to cut down but failing, sacrificing most other activities as a result and feeling depressed and irritable when you can’t use your phone. “You could also feel really angry when people dont instantly return your texts,” Roberts says.
Other questions to ask yourself are:
- Have you put yourself or someone else at risk as a result of using it ?
- Are you not attentive to friends or family because you are constantly checking and scrolling for the sake of scrolling?
- Have you set timers for your use and failed, and do you get really irritated when people point out your behaviour?
- Does your use seriously disrupt your life and relationships
- Do you read and re-read messages to the exclusion of other things?
Viewing your phone as an “emotional crutch” is also a possibility, says Roberts. “Sometimes that is ok, but for some people who have addictive tendencies, this reduces their resilience and eventually any twinge of emotion becomes the cue to reach for the phone.”
How To Beat An Addiction To Cell Phones
This article was co-authored by Trudi Griffin, LPC, MS. Trudi Griffin is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Wisconsin specializing in Addictions and Mental Health. She provides therapy to people who struggle with addictions, mental health, and trauma in community health settings and private practice. She received her MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Marquette University in 2011.There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 19 testimonials and 88% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 617,152 times.
Do you find yourself constantly texting, surfing the internet, sending emails, using applications and playing games? Depending on how much time and effort you put into those situations, you may have a problem with excessive cell phone use. Overuse of your cell phone can lead to reduced quality of personal relationships and lack of productivity in daily life.
Also Check: How To Prevent Video Game Addiction
Keep Your Phone Literally Away
Its easier to forget about checking your phone when its physically out of sight and reach. After coming home, I just leave the phone in my bag and put it in the cupboard. Nothing terrible ever happens. Ill hear an urgent call or notification, and at the same time, I can cope with most of the sudden urges to check my phone. Who wants to get up and walk to the other part of ones apartment all the time?
The same trick can help you at work, school, and family dinners. When theres no phone on the table in front of you, its much easier to focus on the things you need to do, be it finishing some work or chatting with your loved ones.
