Smartphone addiction is a popular topic today as increasing amounts of research demonstrate that we spend far too much time on our smartphone devices. Spending time engaging with your smartphone isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, if you’ve found you are spending endless hours on your phone, developing eye strain, or having a problem being present around others, you might want to consider taking a daily smartphone detox to reconnect with the world. Often, people who have lived through trauma have symptoms of dissociation which can lead them to spend more time on their phone than connected to people. Learning to be present can be a challenge, but not an impossible one to overcome.
Install a monitoring app that tells you how much screen time you’re clocking in: Moment is becoming a popular app for helping people gauge how much screen time they are spending with their phones. The app uses screenshots from a phone’s battery life records to determine how much time is spent on different apps, while also tracking how much time is spent on the phone, in addition to the number of times the phone is opened. You can create a setting for your daily screen consumption limit which, when surpassed, cues the Moment app to continuously sound a very obnoxious alarm until you lock your screen and put down your phone. Many self-help professionals suggest monitoring as a precursor to changing habits and behaviors. Once you see how often you are engaging with your phone, you can decide how much less you want to be engaging with your phone.Try a restriction app which cuts you off from some or all of your apps a few hours a day: There are many restriction apps made for parents which you can learn to work with on your phone to schedule a few phone-free hours a day by locking yourself out. If that seems too extreme, you can try apps like Freedom which works with your phone’s VPN system to create restrictions. Curate a list of websites and apps you want to be free from, then choose a time table for the app to automatically block your access daily, weekly, or hourly.Schedule self-care activities during the day which will require you to be phone-free: “There’s an app for that” has created some astonishing consequences. There is indeed an app for almost everything we would want to do in the world outside of our phones. Thankfully, we still have the ability to put our phone down and do the things we love to do without the help of an app or the internet. Schedule activities you know you are capable of doing without your phone and put your phone away during those times. If you use your phone for yoga, for example, and you haven’t learned how to do a full yoga routine by yourself, make some quiet time for just stretching your body and focusing on your breath- phone free.
The Guest House Ocala is a premiere private residential treatment program for trauma, addictions, and related mental health issues. Call us today for information on our customized treatment plans and longterm options for care. You can recover from trauma. Start today: 1-855-483-7800