Setting Boundaries with your Smartphone

What’s included?

1. Introduction
2. Knowing your limits
3. Boundaries to put in place
4. Reducing Excessive Screen time for Children
5. How Delamere Can Help

The Sunday Times reported that students will spend 25 years of their lives on their smartphones if current screen time habits continue.

That’s almost a third of their lives spent looking down at a screen – or five and a half hours a day. 

But what can you do when it’s near impossible to cut phone usage out of your life? 

With a lot of education and work requiring phone use, and even just to stay in touch with friends and family, abstinence from the screen isn’t an option. 

Lily Allen, singer and actress, recently compared stopping social media to ‘withdrawing from drugs’. 

The dopamine cycle that comes from the initial hit of opening up your phone or social media is the same that is caused by drug use – but the effects aren’t physical, they’re mental. 

Knowing your limits

So how do you know when your scrolling is out of control? 

When so many people are spending more and more time on their phones, it can be difficult to acknowledge that it is an issue. 

Some key signs that you might need to create some boundaries around phone use include:

• Increasing time spent online causing neglect of other areas of life
• Feelings of guilt or shame about online time
• Anxiety or irritability when unable to connect
• Pleasure derived from internet activities, more so than other hobbies
• Social isolation due to excessive online time
• Decline in work or school performance
• Physical health issues due to lack of activity

Boundaries to put in place

If you’re experiencing these symptoms, it might be time to put some boundaries in place for your body and mind. 

Firstly, you’ll need to analyse your phone habits. Track your screen time on your phone without making any changes, and pay attention to which applications you’re using the most and the times of day in which screen time peaks. 

Using this information, you can put practical boundaries in place:

• If you normally scroll in the morning and it prevents you from getting out of bed on time, invest in an alarm clock, and leave your phone in a different room overnight. 
• If the evenings are the time that you struggle with, try to make plans with family and friends that don’t involve a screen, like going for a walk or playing a board game. 

Most phones allow users to place time limits on certain applications, which can break the cycle of excessive use. 

For students who are in charge of their own timetables, it can be harder to control phone usage. 

Turning off notifications for social media apps can reduce the frequency with which you log on, and creating device free zones with your friends can encourage better conversation. 

Reducing Excessive Screen time for Children 

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that half of children show signs of being addicted to their phones, as reported in The Times. 

Shockingly, the average age of the children in the study was just 10 years old. 

If as a parent you’ve found yourself growing concerned with your child’s phone use, here is some advice to help with an intervention. 

• Gather information first – monitor how often you see your child in front of a screen, where this happens, and their mood. This will influence the way you talk to them.
• Ask open-ended questions – check-in on how they’re feeling, ask open-ended questions to get free-form responses where the person can feel encouraged to express more openly in their own words.
• Reserve judgement – talk to learn and understand, not to make a point or to encourage an action from it.
• Talking about how they’re feeling, not just specifically about the screen use.
• Take notes of your conversation – this will help future conversations, and if you were to discuss the situation with a professional you can refer back to them. 

How Delamere Can Help

At Delamere, our treatment model goes beyond stopping addictive behaviour and seeks to understand what triggers it. Looking deeper into the root causes of addiction allows our team of experts to work closely with guests to build a future proof plan, to grow beyond addiction after treatment. 

Frequent check-ins during the Bloom programme provides guests with intensive support for 12 weeks after treatment so that returning to everyday life is not done alone. 

If you or someone you care about is struggling with smartphone addiction, we’re here to help – book a consultation over the phone on 0330 111 2015 or email us [email protected].

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

Setting Boundaries with your Smartphone

Description

Students will spend 25 years of their lives on their smartphones if current screen time habits continue. Delamere gives tip on how to set boundaries with your smartphone.

Author

Chris Lomas

Publisher Name

Delamere Health Ltd

Publisher Logo

About the author: Chris Lomas

As Head of Therapy & Programme at Delamere I oversee the implementation, evolution and delivery of evidence-based therapeutic programmes, leading a team of skilled therapists and recovery mentors.