How excessive screen-time can impact your health

What’s included?

1. Introduction
2. Health concerns linked to increased screen time
3. How to reduce your screen time
4. How Delamere can help

How many times a day do you glance down at your phone? How many hours from your week are consumed by algorithms designed to keep your attention?

On average, someone in the UK spends six hours and two minutes looking at screens daily according to a study by Priori Data.

That’s 91 whole days in a year.

While this may seem harmless, more research and information is being made available to us on the adverse physical and mental health impacts of this behaviour.

For example, a recent study in the National Library of Medicine reviewed the link drawn between excessive screen time and suicidal, or self-harm, behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic. It validated the view that increased sadness and depression in adolescents were associated with increased screen time.

Social media plays a big part in this, and the rise in this type of addiction particularly in young people, has been widely reported this year. Despite this, it is still not officially recognised by the NHS. 

At Delamere, we refer to these social media algorithms as ‘digital sugar’, getting your brain hooked on the dopamine cycle that it provides.

It is undeniably easier to open an application on your phone and scroll than to read a book, exercise, or complete household chores. Therefore, the brain becomes accustomed to receiving the dopamine hit quickly.

This is a similar cycle to substance addiction, and can have long lasting consequences. 

Need help?
Call us confidentially at any time to speak to a member of our team.

Call us now: 0330 111 2015

Health concerns linked to increased screen time

Socialisation issues

If you’re sitting on your phone instead of being outside, in the gym, meeting with a friend, it can reduce access to socialisation and actually cause cognitive problems.

There is an argument that people who are shy or socially awkward can often find social media easier to interact with people on. However this can lead to them becoming dependent on it for connection and using it excessively. 

This is then mirrored with an ongoing reduction in social skills and withdrawing from the real world. It becomes a catch-22 because you’re using social media for your self-esteem and confidence but it’s actually reducing all the skills you previously had.

Increase anxiety

Social media in general can create anxieties and extra pressures which make people feel like their lives seem inadequate and insignificant. The same goes for when you’re seeking likes and comments on a photo – it can both boost your confidence but if you don’t get ‘enough’ it can have the opposite effect.

Disrupted sleep

If you’re going to bed at 11 and endlessly scrolling through social media for hours, your sleep may be affected and this carries into the next day when concentration levels aren’t going to be as good

Growing concerns of excessive screen time with young people

A House of Commons Committee report revealed that there was a 52% increase in children’s screen time between 2020 and 2022, with 25% of children and young people using their smartphones in a way that is consistent with a behavioural addiction.

Research by the National Institutes of Health indicates early thinning of the brain cortex in young people with more than seven hours of screen time a day. This can be linked to neurological conditions such as depression.

Children with high phone usage often struggle with reading and writing at school compared to their less digitally engaged peers.

How to reduce your screen time

• Recognise the problem: You need to be honest with yourself and recognise if your screen time is becoming an issue. Identify what your triggers are, what you spend the most time focused on and then plan accordingly. If you’re a concerned parent, welcoming an open and unjudgmental conversation with your child and encouraging them to be honest and reflective about their time spent online will help them to recognise the issue. 
• Find an alternative: Rather than thinking of spending six hours on your phone, try to find a new hobby or an alternative way to spend that time. You could join a gym, start horse riding, take up knitting or go out with a friend – find something to fill that time.
• Set time limits: Setting time limits is a great way to manage your screen time and if you struggle to do that independently, there are new communities getting established. For example, there’s a new group called Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous – a forum for people who are addicted to their phones and they can get peer support as they try to minimise their time online.

How Delamere can help

When social media and tech usage transcends the norm and interferes with your day-to-day life, it might be time to get help. 

Delamere’s Stop, Start, Grow, Bloom treatment model is individualised and adaptable to help any guest on their journey to addiction recovery. 

Whilst treatment for this addiction is a new field, our experts at Delamere can use the knowledge gained from treating other behavioural addictions to devise innovative treatment programmes that are only available at the clinic.

The holistic treatment model combines practices such as reiki, breathwork, yoga and equine therapy with more traditional counselling services such as one to one therapy and group sessions. 

Social media and technology play such a large role in the lives of many, that building a futureproof plan to grow beyond addiction will be quintessential to integrating yourself back into the world, and Delamere can build the toolbox to help you do this. 

Learn more about how Delamere can help treat behavioural or process addictions, like with excessive screen time, or social media.

Need help?
Call us confidentially at any time to speak to a member of our team.

Call us now: 0330 111 2015

Summary

Article Name

How excessive screen-time can impact your health

Description

On average, someone in the UK spends six hours and two minutes looking at screens daily. Find out how excessive screen-time can impact your health.

Author

Martin Preston

Publisher Name

Delamere Health Ltd

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About the author: Dr Catherine Carney

As a psychiatrist with a specialist interest in addiction treatment, Catherine is a real asset to Delamere. Coupled with her experience in working with addictions for over a decade, Catherine’s grounded and down to earth approach is something our guests and clinical team value greatly.