I Have An Addiction

My phone spent the morning at home. I successfully made it through five hours of work without any phone functions - including social media. I lived. I truly think I have an addiction. It's a very real thing.

How do you know if you're just like me and can't put that phone down? Entrepreneur listed the 6 signs of a phone addict:

1. You reach for your cell phone first thing in the morning
2. You use your cell phone when you are bored
3. You spend increasingly more time on your cell phone
4. You become anxious when your cell phone isn't with you
5. People have complained about your cell phone use
6. You can't cut back on cell phone use no matter how hard you try

How do we fix these things?

• Try not to check your phone until after you are fully ready and about your day.
• Consciously put people first and technology second.
• Set specific breaks away from your phone. Kind of like a time-out.
• Let people know if you have a phone call coming in so it's a planned break but make it brief.
• Plan an unplugged day and then weekend and see how it all goes. Baby steps. Did the world crumble? If yes, grab that phone.

At first, when I brought up this topic, I was kind of joking. Now that I'm reading about cell phone addiction, I'm learning a lot more about it and seeing that it's a real thing.

The reason that smartphones are so addicting is because they trigger the release of serotonin and dopamine—the "feel good chemicals" in our brains—providing instant gratification just like addictive substances do

Obsessive and compulsive smartphone use is a symptom of underlying behavioral health and personality issues. What happens is that people who are suffering from issues like depression, anxiety, trauma, and socially-challenging personalities self-medicate by reaching for things outside of themselves to manage their internal discomfort. Because technology plays such an integral part of our lives, smartphones easily become their object of choice.

I'm writing all this as I stare at my iPhone 7 box wondering if it was the "right" thing to do.

See any of this in yourself?

Wow, I just got completely deep on you. That was unexpected.