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Tech Addiction Guide
Disclaimer: This article is not meant to be used as a substitute for guidance similar to a qualified physician or a professional therapist. This material should only be used for educational reasons. If you have any further questions, you should speak with your doctor. We will do our best to provide the most up-to-date and accurate information, but we cannot guarantee it.
What Is Tech Addiction?
Clearly, today’s digital screens are not the innocuous, rabbit-eared TV screens of yesteryear. While people worried about television’s effects, the hypnotic power of immersive and interactive digital screens on young minds is an altogether different animal. Research is indicating a more dopamine activating – and thus potentially more addicting—effect than TV, as well as an increase in clinical disorders such as ADHD, aggression, mood disorders, and psychosis.
Tech Addiction can be defined as the tech overuse and tech obsession-related behavior that increases overtime
despite negative consequences to the user of the technology. In order to fully understand tech addiction, we need to understand the brain’s reward system and the impact of dopaminergic behaviors on the reward pathway…
How dopaminergic (dopamine activating) a behavior correlates very highly with the addictive potential of that behavior. Dopamine is the feel-good neurotransmitter that’s the most critical element in the addiction process. When a person performs an action that satisfies a need or fulfills a desire, dopamine is released into the nucleus accumbens, a cluster of nerve cells beneath the cerebral hemispheres that are associated with pleasure and reward, also known as the brain’s pleasure center. In simple terms, engaging in dopaminergic behavior increases dopamine levels so that the dopamine-reward pathway is activated, thus telling the induvial to repeat what he or she just did in order to get that feel-good dopamine reward again.
Research has shown that people who are predisposed toward addiction have lower baseline levels of dopamine and other feel-good neurotransmitters such as endorphins and norepinephrine; thus they’re more likely to get hooked on any behavior that increases dopamine simply because their brains crave it more than those of people who have normal baseline neurotransmitter levels.
Omega Recovery’s Chief Clinical Officer
Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, explains in his book “Glow Kids” how modern-day technology is equally if not more dopaminergic(addictive) than drugs and alcohol. Considered a leading expert in digital addiction, he has clinically worked with 1,000 individuals and written about the subject for Time, Scientific American, Psychology Today, Solan, and FOX News, and has appeared on Good Morning America, ABC’s 20/20, the CBS Evening News, CNN, FOX & Friends, NPR, and in Esquire, New York magazine, and Vanity Fair.
Technology Addiction Treatments
Gaming Addiction
Video Game Addiction is compulsive or uncontrolled use of video games and negatively effects other areas of the person’s life.
Screen Addiction
Screen Addiction is a set of behaviors and consequences that can occur when we use too much screen time during the day that can lead to the need for intensive treatment.
Social Media Addiction
Social media addiction is defined as compulsive use of social media even when those platforms are taking over your life.
Online Gambling Addiction
Gambling disorder tends to run in families, but environmental factors have also contributed to this addiction. Symptoms of this disorder can begin as early as adolescence or as late as older adulthood.
Phone Addiction
While a smartphone can be a hugely productive tool, compulsive use of this device can interfere with work, school, and relationships.
Technology Addiction
Today’s technology devices ensure that we never have to spend a moment fully immersed in reality. There is always a screen to escape into.
Online Pornography Addiction
Screen Addiction is a set of behaviors and consequences that can occur when we use too much screen time during the day that can lead to the need for intensive treatment.
Tech Addiction Treatment Program at Omega Recovery
The first step to treating addiction is recognizing that a problem exists. One of the primary problems with the Internet is the lack of accountability online. Users are hidden behind a screen and often engage in behavior that they would never do in person.
Omega Recovery understands that the first step to treating addiction is recognizing that a problem exists. One of the primary problems with the Internet is the lack of accountability online. Users are hidden behind a screen and often engage in behavior that they would never do in person. Omega incorporates “Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes” into our clinical program, unplugging from our devices, engaging in a healing community, physical exercise and immersing our clients into nature. Omega Recovery also offers traditional evidence-based therapy to treat technology addiction.
Dr. Nicholas Kardaras believes that screens can be more difficult to treat than drugs. Its no surprise that screen usage has skyrocketed, the actual numbers are nonetheless staggering: the average American adult spends more than 11 hours per day watching, reading, listening and interacting with screens. Clinically, screen addiction looks like any other addiction and characterized by a person continuing to engage in problematic behavior which negatively impacts their life. Those addicted to screens have seen their schooling, job prospects, and personal relationships suffer or even destroyed as a result of their addiction to screens and technology.
Evidence-based modalities for Technology Addiction Treatment
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Peer Recovery Coaching
Nature Immersion
Outdoor Behavioral Health
Narrative Therapy and the “Hero’s Journey”
Mindfulness
Yoga and Somatic Techniques
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So just pulling the plug on the devices doesn’t really count as tech addiction treatment—it doesn’t address what’s driving the compulsive behavior and the need to escape into tech addiction escapism…”
Tech Addiction Quizzes
Screen Addiction For Adults Quiz
Screen addiction for adults is defined as compulsive and excessive use of a mobile device.
Screen Addiction For Kids Quiz
Screen addiction for kids is defined as compulsive and excessive use of a mobile device.
Online Gambling Addiction Quiz
An online gambling addiction is defined as compulsive and excessive need to gamble.
Onling Gaming Addiction
Video game addiction is defined as compulsive and excessive need to game online.
Pornography Addiction Quiz
Online pornography addiction is defined as compulsive and excessive use of viewing pornographic material.
Social Media Addiction Quiz
Social media addiction is defined as compulsive and excessive use of social media.
Internet Addiction Quiz
Internet addiction is defined as compulsive and excessive use of the Internet (Email, Notifications, Etc).
Our Services
In addition, Omega Recovery offers a full continuum of care. The following additional services are available to you:
Treatment Program
Community integration treatment
24/7 STAFF SUPERVISION
Recovery Support
Outpatient Rehab
Morning & Evening Programs
3 DAYS A WEEK
Group and Individual Counseling
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