Understanding Teen Cell Phone Addiction
It’s time to address a serious ever-growing problem in culture, teen phone addiction. It’s not just an infatuation, it’s a real issue tied to numerous mental and physical harms. Understanding the definition and deeper details of teen phone addiction can guide you on how to deal with the problem. All of the following information and tips should be adjoined with professional treatment.
What is Teen Phone Addiction?
Teen cell phone addiction is defined as spending excess time on your phone screen to a degree that causes mental and physical harm. Considering the recent studies that tie excessive screen time to mental health problems, many phone addiction symptoms can manifest themselves behaviorally. Allow the details outlined below to enlighten you on the harms, symptoms, and ways to deal with teen phone addiction.
Phone Addiction Numbers Among Teens
Over 80 percent of teens reportedly actively use a cell phone on a consistent basis. Of that number, nearly 40 percent of those teens fit the criteria of a phone addiction. To fit these criteria, teens have at least 7 hours of phone screen time in a 24-hour period. The deeper-rooted issue with these numbers is it is almost widely accepted as a normal fixation. However, in the case of teens, who are still mentally developing vital regions of their brain, this screen time is dangerous for adolescent development.
Why are Teens Addicted to Their Phones?
There are several reasons that are unique to each teen that can lead them to be addicted to their phones. Here is a wide blanket of reasons why that occurs.
Social and Emotional Convenience
The convenience brought about by cell phones has both positive and negative conveniences. In the case of teens, digital socialization is a much more attractive option to avoid real interaction or uncomfortable emotions. This can easily make a teenager become lost in the depths of their social network, interactions, and digital status. This convenience, however, gives one a false sense of status that can be a more attractive distraction from real-world emotions.
An Escape from Problems at Home
If there are parental or sibling quarrels or other hardships at home, phone addiction can be an impulsive, but unhealthy vent. This means spending most or all of their time on their phones as an escape from their home drama. Correlatively, this means they will spend little or no time with their family. Having an escape from problems is a good coping mechanism. However, phone addiction is a very harmful mental and physical outlet that causes more problems.
A Stress Relief Impulse
Resorting to phone screen time is a common impulsive stress relief measure, albeit an unhealthy one. This is due to the sufferer not having the proper stress relief coping methods. Ironically, screen time is linked to greater anxiety and stress levels that can even cause anxiety disorders. Our empathetic treatment team has meticulous training methods that help you deal with stress healthily and proactively. These will eventually become ingrained into your impulsive stress response system.
Extreme Sadness
While this could be considered part of being an escape from problems, this is important to single out. It’s important to notice any teen phone addiction that may be linked to sadness or depression. Cell phones are not just an escape from sadness, they are a coping mechanism that can be likened to drug use. Surprisingly, a phone addiction to cope with sadness also has similar mental and physical harms as drug abuse.
A Nervous Impulse
Like biting fingernails, resorting to phone screen addiction is often a nervous or anxious tick. Teens with a phone problem will exhibit similar behaviors with their devices. When a teenager becomes nervous or feels anxious, it’s almost a natural impulse to take out your phone. Thankfully, Blume Behavioral Health has behavioral therapy practices to help you utilize healthy anxiety and nervous coping mechanisms.
A Time Filler
Teenagers become addicted to their phones when they’re bored. Consequently, if teens have too much time on their hands with little extracurriculars, their phones will become the source of all of their activities. This includes social, entertainment, communication, and music. With everything at their fingertips, they’ll invert into a digital shell, secluding themselves from the real world without a hobby.
What are the Signs of Teen Phone Addiction?
A teen’s addiction to phones is noticeable through a variety of behavioral cues. These cues consist of one or more of the following symptoms.
Social Seclusion or Detachment
Individuals who avoid physical social interaction and resort to social detachment are commonly addicted to their phones. This is almost always accompanied by the individual being fixated on their phone and completely oblivious to their social environment. Take notice of anybody exhibiting this unhealthy reclusive behavior as it can be a sure sign of a phone addiction.
Research indicates that cognitive distortions can exacerbate mental health issues, making it challenging for teens to cope with stressors. This vicious cycle may lead to a decreased willingness to engage in positive activities, stunting emotional and social growth.
Consistently Apparent Phone Usage
The most obvious visual sign of teen phone addiction is being on your phone constantly. Many times, you may not have to look any further than this symptom to know if someone has a phone addiction. Unfortunately, people overlook consistent phone use as just a regular activity, not realizing the long-term consequences of excessive screen time.
Exhibiting Uncomfortable and Stressful Behavior without Phone Contact
In circumstances where their personal cell phone is unavailable, phone addiction sufferers will portray nervous, fidgety, or stressful behavior. This will often be accompanied by social anxiety and not knowing how to behave in public. These addiction sufferers will often appear lost and confused without access to their phones.
Elevated Irritability
When you have a phone addiction, you grow accustomed to interacting socially strictly on a digital basis. Therefore, physical interactions become more aggravating due to screen time’s neuronic effects on emotion and mood regulations. This results in a higher likelihood of being quick to anger at even the simplest of physical social interactions.
Neck Pain
When you spend time on your phone, your neck arches in an unhealthy posture. Therefore, spending extended periods on your phone will cause neck pain commonly referred to as “tech neck”. This pain can range anywhere from a stiff neck to severe nerve pain in the back of the neck. This physical ailment is usually a common sign your body is telling you to cut back on phone screen time.
How Does Phone Addiction Impact a Teen’s Neurology?
Since we now have several years of studies regarding phone screen effects on the teen brain, the verdict is out. The fact is, excessive phone screen time has a very detrimental impact on mental progress in the following ways.
Stunted Prefrontal Cortex Growth
During adolescent and teen years, the prefrontal cortex is in its prime developmental stages. Science concludes that excessive screen time has an inhibitory impact on the development of these regions of the brain. This means their decision-making, emotional responses, and cognitive functions can all become compromised due to phone addiction. This can lead to a slew of life struggles holding jobs, and relationships, and performing daily responsibilities.
Limbic Deficiencies
The limbic system controls memory retention and learning capabilities. All of these neuronic frequencies are inhibited by screen time. In turn, schooling and work duties will suffer as a result of these screen addiction-induced limbic deficiencies. Once acquired, these deficiencies may be permanent depending on the severity of the phone addiction. However, there are mental health aids and medications you can be prescribed to improve your mental struggles.
Hippocampus Region Compromization
The hippocampus is primarily responsible for self-esteem, an area that is extremely volatile during a teen’s developmental years. Located in the deep middle region of the brain, a phone addiction has severe effects on this in several ways. Predominantly, social media use, one of the primary functions of phone addicts, opens teens up to a new level of bullying. Social media bullying is an ever-prevalent problem that is the primary driver of declining self-esteem. This affects the hippocampus greatly, reducing one’s sense of self-worth and individual importance.
Induced Mental Health Problems
CT scans conducted on teen brains under prolonged screen exposure have found similar neuronic activity to that of a drug addict. This mental harm in correlation with the aforementioned neuronic harms can lead to permanent mental health conditions. Once acquired, you’ll require additional mental health treatment or dual-diagnoses therapy to help you deal with multiple mental health or addiction disorders.
What To Do If a Teen is Addicted to Their Phone?
The most important response to noticing a child has a phone addiction problem is to sit down and talk with them. Make sure you come to them calmly, lovingly, and peacefully. Discuss your concerns and offer a resolution by spending more time with them or helping them find other enjoyable activities. In almost every case, teen addiction treatment will be necessary to help institute these new activities and hobby replacements into their life. To go the extra mile, we have highly effective parental support programs in California that help the family heal together. This also helps you learn how to help your child from a medical perspective of addiction.
Blume Behavioral Health Can Help Your Teen in California
We understand the family struggles that go along with phone addiction. The social, emotional, and physical detachment from loved ones takes a toll on everybody, including the teenager. Regardless of the situation, we are here to help and open their eyes to their limitless potential. Contact Blume Behavioral Health to help you and your teenager begin the healing process.
Daniel Duel MD is a board-certified psychiatrist specializing in General Adult Psychiatry with a focus on Addiction/Substance Use Disorders. As the Medical Director of an outpatient addiction clinic, he oversees a multidisciplinary team providing comprehensive care. He has extensive experience treating complex mood, psychosis, OCD, anxiety, and geriatric disorders. Dr. Duel is a UCLA graduate, trained in TMS and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
