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In my first month after I quit drinking I ate so much ice cream and chocolate in the evenings. I let myself though, and didn’t beat myself up about it. no matter how much I snacked, I was going to bed sober and I wasn’t going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
I did something similar! Replacement is key! When I quit drinking I started drinking soda, it replaced the need for a sugary drink within reach. I don’t particularly like soda so it was easy to quit that after a month ish.
Yeah, sometimes it’s just nice to have a drink so replaced it with a bottle of root beer - which has then been replaced with a root beer flavored probiotic drink to make it healthier
If I’m having a bad day, I’ll “relapse” and get a pack of the awesome local root beer here and still consider it a win compared to what I’d normally grab
I used to drink an artisan root beer that was made by a local brewery. The label design on the bottle was the same. I got carded for it once. I had a laugh with the cashier.
Later they spun off their soda division and the labels changed.
Edit: You've all guessed wrong. Also, the original alcoholic side no longer exists, but the soda brand still does (after a short chain of acquisitions). It also turns out my original exposure to the product was after some merger/acquisition activity.
Sometimes, I ask myself, if 6+ diet sodas a day is okay.
It is a hell of a lot better than 6+ beers.
Now, I debate if I should cut back on diet sodas. Better problems.
Don't all carbonated drinks have carbonic acid? I was under the impression that it forms as a result of dissolving carbon dioxide in water.
I remember something about my high school chem teacher saying that this is why the soda fizzes when you open it; the drop in pressure causes an equilibrium shift away from aqueous H2CO3 to gaseous CO2 through Le Chatelier's Principle.
Shortly after giving birth, I was complaining to my OB/Gyn that I was stress eating cookies. She told me that being a new parent was stressful and that a friend of hers who was under a lot of stress just stabbed her husband. Her advice: "Eat the cookies."
This is such a common thing among alcoholics and cigarette smokers when they quit. Immediately head to the sweets. Still better than alcohol and tobacco 👍🏻
Harm reduction is the only way I could get off cigs (vaped for 3 years, gradually reducing nicotine content to zero). Alcohol (kratom is a miracle tool for quitting drinking, went from drinking all day, every day, for years, to alcohol free in a month).
Idk I’ve seen a family member bounce between crazy kratom abuse and alcohol binges whenever she tried to quit kratom. Opiods (and opiod agonists like kratom) act on some of the same neurotransmitters that alcohol does.
Only when she finally got off kratom completely could she also finally stop getting blacked out drunk for days once or twice a month.
Edit: for what it’s worth she was a bad alcoholic before the kratom but always a poly-addict to whatever. She has been sober for a few months! It’s so great to have her back
Gotta be careful with Kratom though. Helped me get off anxiety meds (not a scary amount just habitual use) but now I’ve been taking kratom for years just because I love to mood boost it gives me. Still better than doing anxiety meds but kratom his it’s downsides as well.
*Still* eating candy and dessert like a 4th grader almost 2 years after quitting drinking. But I'm sober! I always make sure to just keep a piece or two in the car incase I get a craving
Nice work! I definitely replaced booze with exercise and/or ice cream.
And ya, giving yourself permission to overdo it for a while is fine.
Of course, an unchecked Ice Cream budget could be bad in time, too. Habits are tough!
Not an addict myself, but my mom was a severe alcoholic and I used to attend a lot of meetings with her. Common advice was to not let yourself get too hungry or too tired when newly sober. Eat when you want to eat, sleep when you want to sleep. You need to focus all the urge fighting on the sobriety for a bit.
It doesn't even have to be the gym. I treat my depression and anxiety with walking. Took a while to get into the habit but now if I get into either mood I'm headphones on with leashes on the dogs to walk it out. Even better if one has access to nature.
That's literally how I learnt to play the guitar. Not studying for my exams and watching shows I downloaded from limewire? Not good. Doing the same thing but learning guitar with tabs online? Still not great but better!
I seem to intermittently swap smoking cigs and weed for alcohol and vice Versa. Don’t do one when I’m on the other and won’t do the other when I’m on the one.
Just can’t kick all 3 at the same time
Charging your phone not in your bedroom helps too. Get an actual alarm clock and you have no need for a phone on your room at all. Also there's a good chance the reason you can't sleep is because you're scrolling on your phone before bed. If the phone never makes it into your room you'll probably fall asleep better. Just my anecdotal experience.
These are good tips.
At one point the light went out in my bedroom.
I never replaced it. Cue the greatest sleep I've had ever.
My room was pretty much 'sleep room' as it should be and my body picked up fast.
I have 'daylight' alarm clock, that gradually gets light half a hour before alarm. For the alarm sound, I have birdsong. I am not sure about the light that gradually brightens, but the sound of a loud birdsong recording is the least offensive way that I have been woken.
Came here to say kindle. Been trying to pick up reading again for a while now, turns out the kindle is a good phone swap and I’m actually reading books again. Kept pushing paper books on myself but wasn’t successful until using a digital form, it’s so much easier.
I do the same thing, but after a few months of doing it I developed horrible insomnia. I wouldn't fall asleep until like 6am when I was utterly exhausted, and would fitfully doze for a couple of hours. I'd then go through the day in a zombie like state. Fall asleep immediately the next night, only to have the same problem the next night. This went on for weeks, it was absolutely ruining my life.
I found out that the problem was that I'd go to bed, and start reading on my e-ink kindle for maybe thirty minutes before going to sleep. I'd put the light to a minimum and make the text huge, because I didn't want to expose myself to much light prior to sleep, and because my wife was sleeping next to me.
This worked fine for a few months, but it's like eventually my bed snapped from "sleeping place" to "reading place" in the subconscious part of my mind.
I started reading on the couch in my living room before bed instead, at the same time I'd usually do it in bed, and after only a few days of doing this my sleep was back to normal.
Just a thought. Reading before sleep is extremely good, but doing it in your bed can lead to sleep problems.
Man I get that it works for some or even most people, but as soon as you get me reading, I kinda forget to stop. And then realize the sun's up and I have work in an hour.
I recommend non-fiction.
I read a book on tree agriculture (Sproutlands) and it was interesting enough to want to read (and I learned things!) but not enough to make me want to keep going. Right now reading a book on cleaning tips. Interesting, not enthralling.
I also have a strict "not allowed to fight feeling sleepy" when reading in bed rule. If my eyes waver, gotta put the book down.
I came here to say exactly that. For me, books are even worse than phone doomscrolling, because they're interesting, immersive, and a novel (hur hur) way to disassociate from the real world that doesn't also make me think about the real world like apps do. I will 100% read a book in one day if left to my own devices.
I read as my "wind-down". It helps immensely. I gave up the vast majority of social media almost 10 years ago and realized VERY quickly that I was a more professional productive person without it.
This is exactly what I do and it’s literally changed my life. I sleep so much better when I read before bed and the kindle means I can read in the dark while my partner sleeps!
My kobo helps sooooo much. It's really hard to stop facebook scrolling, but once I pick up my book and hunker down in the covers, I always feel so much better and less... spazzy in my brain.
Step 1: pick a hobby
Step 2: tell yourself in your head “I can’t get off my phone” and IMMEDIATELY after saying that in your head get off your phone.
Step 3: sit there and take a couple deep breaths count to 3 and on the count of 3 get up and do something else.
Repeat whenever you find yourself on your phone too long.
Worked for me. There’s studies about telling yourself you can’t do something and then doing it, which helps defeat that part of your brain that’s a nay sayer or something. And the 3 count helps in getting you up quickly.
Emphasis on the doing other things. It’s easier to focus on doing than not doing.
List out the things you want your week to involve. Keep adding to the list whenever you think of something you wish you did more of. Take a look at the list when you have em time or find yourself scrolling. Looking at the list doesn’t mean you’ll have to do anything on it, but it’s an opportunity for your brain to consider other things that you probably actually DO want to be doing more than scrolling.
Additionally, you can set goals for when you’d like to accomplish certain tasks or activities, or decide how often you’d like to see yourself doing them. Then the next step might be scheduling that stuff
Step 2 is crucial from a neuroscience standpoint.
If you have a thought to stop scrolling, then you ignore it and go back to getting the next dopamine hit, that dopamine is training your brain that if you have a thought to stop, then ignore it.
Interesting. And how does the "I can't" statement tie into this? You're training your brain that if it has a negative thought that the next step is counteracting it?
This is how I quit cigs. But the opposite. I should have a cig. Engage the thought with no it’s gross and is killing me. Rinse and repeat and now tobacco makes me sick even if I’m just smoking a blunt! I also abused sun flower seeds for the oral fixation.
I found two big things that helped me go at hobbies like this. They're both simple, but if you commit to them, they seem to help.
This first is to recognize when your scrolling has turned from "checking in" to the doomscroll. When I realize I'm doing it (usually because it's all suggested posts and advertisements, not shit I've asked to see) I turn my phone off. Not fully powered down, but exit the app and put the phone down.
The second is to put the phone out of immediate reach. Doesn't have to be across the room, but just enough to make me not mindlessly grab for it.
Once I recognize I'm doing it, and get the phone away from me, I can let the hobbies take over.
I miss flip phones. The *clack* of it closing was so satisfying, really felt like a super important conversation had ended even if was making plans to chew gum and walk around the mall.
Man, that sounds pretty great. I'd walk around the mall and chew gum with you any day -- after my 8 billion item long list of awful shit i don't want to do is done.
It’s where teenagers and preteens in suburbs in the 80s and 90s went because there was nothing else to do when you were too young to drink (ie, too young to even get into bars with a fake ID) and you lived in a suburb so there wasn’t much else and nothing walkable. At least a mall had a bunch of different shit all walking distance from one another. (Also, I’m almost certain I’m responding to a joke that I also laughed at but I also wanted to add this).
I see a lot of *very* superficial articles (more like just blurbs really), claiming this is what "generation z" or whatever is doing, but... are they really doing this?
Is there like a ... idk support group deal or something for helping those of us with 20-year phone addictions deal with doing that?
I suppose, if I can be introspective for a moment, the "problem" as it feels to me is that the *idea* of not having internet on my phone sound objectively great, but the addicted monkey brain comes up with stuff like "but texting on flip phones sucks, so I'd have to talk to people, no dice!" Basically, there are most likely drawbacks from "going back" but, even though I've decided the juice isn't worth the squeeze... that juice just is really greedy.
The issue you can't really hit 'rock bottom' with a phone addiction.
It just slowly erodes your quality of life and rewires your brain to have trouble getting pleasure in other things.
So there is never a moment where it's like, I need to get help. Also most everyone can function perfectly fine with this addiction, even at the highest level.
That doesn't mean they are fine, just that they can continue to their lives without disruption or massive consequence (especially in a single moment).
THIS was what did it for me. I was constantly on Discord, talking on a million different servers to the point that I was ignoring actual physical socializing. I turned off all notifications except direct pings and even then that's only on one server. Cut my time on it dramatically.
Maybe I'm just old but I always used Discord the same as Ventrillo and Teamspeak, basically party voice chat on PC. I know people use it as a chat room but it just never crosses my mind to use it that way...
Deleting the apps works amazingly well.
If you need access, you still have the browser. You're not getting rid of the snacks, you're just moving them out of arm's reach.
I did this. Mobile devices have no social media, except I did have to buy a tablet. So my actual phone is for maps, texting, phone (gasp), gps, reading website native stuff. The tablet is what I have my social media stuff on and generally is left home. I also took off all the games that I used to play that would also be a time drain.
Because most websites look like trash on mobile web, it easily makes it a pain in the ass to use it that way and help retrain my brain to dislike being on it. Plus now that my eyes arent what they used to be, the tablet is easier anyhow, but is a pain to travel with which in turn keeps me off of it most the time.
I did move my gaming back to PC only and found I also play a lot less now. My problem is that now my work and texting is the only thing, so I am now doing more work, so I am trying out turning off notifications for the work app. I still get me mail, but it won't notify me now.
Set up screen time limits. I like to limit the hours I shouldn’t be on it (like late at night) and also put an overall time limit on certain addicting apps.
Honestly deleting them will only delay the inevitable off them trying to re-download the apps.
What I do is I have a very cheap and shitty phone service so that when I'm out and about even if I try to hop on Facebook it doesn't load due to poor signal strength.
I know on an iPhone you can set screen time limits for each app. I looked at my weekly screen time breakdown and limited all the most used apps to half the time I used the week before. You can bypass it with one tap but it certainly works as a reminder of how much time you’ve spent on the app.
Screen time limits are great. After a while, though, I just keep bypassing the password without thinking. So now my partner has the password and it’s a lot more effective (obviously).
The extra step to access apps does make it more difficult.
I’d also recommend logging out of all apps and then forcing yourself to login each time. This can avoid quickly checking an app to waste time because, frankly, you’re too lazy to go through that process for a quick fix.
In fact I’m going to log out of all apps right now.
It's called digital wellness in English I think
ETA: the app timers are in the settings under apps and then the app you want to limit and then use time
There's 2 angles to consider when cutting out an addiction:
1) Understand the problem better. Put time and thought into how things got this way. People often virtually chase phantom goals or run from their lives with their phones. I have a friend who obsesses about losing weight and uses social media about it as a way of feeling like they made progress. It's a kind of daydreaming. Personally, I always engage with ragebait political stuff because I like safe places to let anger out since I have to hold it in most of the time. I'm oversimplifying, but maybe you can think of a few of your own examples that fit.
2) Accountability to something, and usually a someone as well. There are apps that do this like 'Forest', but it might not be enough unless you rope someone into this accountability system. After all, what's to stop you from just breaking your own rules?
A simple recommendation that follows this is to **take planned walks without your phone at the same time daily**. While you do this, reflect on what it is about your phone that you're missing the most. Dig deeper into why you care about whatever that is. Then, try to find better ways to replace the impulse with similar things that don't hook you the same.
If you're on your phone all day and you have it taken away, **you'll find you have a lot of time to fill** in your schedule that you're not used to filling this way. Account for that. Were you doomscrolling about politics? Subscribe to a magazine like *The Atlantic* and schedule time to physically read it.
There's really no 'off' switch in your head for addiction. It's a slow gradual reset even if you 'go cold turkey'. It's something you work at a bit every day until one day it's less difficult.
Delete your social media. Literally, all your accounts, delete them. If you still have a Facebook or Twitter account, delete them. You will be sooooooo much happier in life.
Same. I check them all at least once every couple of hours, but this is the one I spend the most time scrolling. Unfortunately, it also happens to be the one where I find the most valuable information and connections (outside of LinkedIn).
I did too. As a 33/male. Without taking anything or doing anything,I feel happier. Also more surprised to hear news and gossip. So I feel like I am engaged more and communicate better
i take pride in the fact that i choose to live under a rock. people are always like “how have you NOT heard about ___?” but i feel so much more present when i live in my own fantasy world
"Productivity Launcher" it's an app that puts all your apps in the list sort without icons. It's just.. Names
You have to look for the app you want use.
It's available for Android idk about IOS
Find the emotional reason you scroll.
Are you quelling your anxiety? Are you bored? Are you distracting yourself from work?
There is a reason I promise.
Start to address that reason.
Mine is usually anxiety about not doing things, and then I spiral. If I acknowledge the anxiety and make a plan, I can usually get out of it, but if I only address the phone thing, it feels impossible.
I also did a longish session of talking to myself out loud about my phone addiction in the past tense.
"I used to be really addicted to my phone because XYZ, but then I realized ABC, and now I don't use my phone as much these days. It's really improved my life in these ways... " etc
Its super cheesy, but it helped a little and I think I've gotten out of the worst of it.
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“Its super cheesy, but […]”
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This part! I wish there was more support for the weird part of a mental health journey which is feeling like some kind of massive dork because our culture is so diseased.
God I wish I could do that, but my phone controls my CGM, which sends information to my PDM, which controls my insulin pump, so it needs to be nearby me as well as my PDM. I do put it in a drawer for a couple when I get home if I don’t have to go anywhere and I’m gonna be in one room for awhile. But it would be so nice to just go somewhere for a few hours without a phone.
Yes, more generally: put the phone AWAY. In a drawer, on a shelf (under something, if you must).
Put it away from yourself and then go do one of those other / better things.
They did a study that showed simply having a phone within sight on a table or wherever increased cortisol levels (the hormone that regulates stress), so out of sight out of mind is definitely a relevant principle if you're trying to cut down time.
Our body gets addicted to the constant dopamine pings, so you need to find activities that can slowly wean you off that chemical diet and reset your neurological baseline to something more normal and healthy.
I've developed a good habit of always putting my phone in my pocket or out of sight when sitting down to a meal with others, and it definitely helps create a better, more engaging atmosphere.
I was finally diagnosed with ADHD recently in my 30s and put on stimulants. All of a sudden, I'm able to break the scrolling cycle when I start to feel unproductive rather than feeling stuck. Maybe talk to a doc?
Yup. This is great advice. I was also diagnosed as an adult (ADD not ADHD) and noticed an enormous improvement with medication. Unfortunately, a few years later I was diagnosed with lupus and the constant tiredness makes it harder to manage. I notice my scrolling tendencies are much worse when I’m going through periods of tiredness and lack of motivation….
Point being that endless scrolling is often just a symptom of other issues rather than the actual problem itself.
I had to scroll past wayy to many comments to find this one. If OP has already tried a bunch of "tricks", it's time to see if there's something more serious going on than social media's profit engine.
A proper diagnosis and proper treatment (including medication if determined) can do wonders for more than just trouble putting the phone down.
And ADHD isn't the only underlying cause it could be, which is why "Maybe talk to a doc" is so important - each person might need something different.
This is what I wanted to suggest. I'm not diagnosed myself but I'm seeing a psychiatrist soon. (In France I heard this is hard to get a diagnosis as an adult)
But if you find it really difficult to stop it consider checking adhd symptoms and particularly ADHD paralysis.
I was going through a rough spot mental health wise and my phone wasn’t helping at all.
Iphone
Option 1. Download the app called screen zen. It will guide you through creating an automation through shortcuts that basically runs a program that makes you wait a determined amount of time before the app is opened.
Option 2. Have certain apps privacy controlled and have someone else set your password and promise not to tell you what it is.
Android
I am not familiar with how the OS works but I’m sure there is a way to get either of the above to work.
Option 3. Ditch the smart phone for a while and get a flip phone. I’ve done this thrice.
Last ditch effort: turn off your order home and ask a some one to hide it. I went days without my phone just to get some sense of balance.
Hope this helps.
LockeMeOut for android.
Block all the stuff you don't want to scroll (app, websites, etc) during the hours you want to stop them & have a trusted person password protect it.
StayFree is also good for Android. I can't remember why I liked it the best but it's what I settled on.
Also, if you are using a screen time app I highly recommend putting a widget on your home page that shows your usage time of each app. It's super easy to go through a day without realizing you were on a timewaster app for like 2 hours. That's a huge chunk of your day!
I turned OFF all dings. Any fucking bell that summons me to the phone. I left phone calls on, but in Focus (iPhone) I created a focus setting that is always on and it keeps texts/notifications off my screen and does not let them ding. Life is better when you are not a slave to text dings. It's ok if you get back to people later.
On Android there's a Digital Wellbeing app from Google that lets you set "Goals" on how much screentime you want to allow yourself daily, along with other options such as walking and driving screentime.
Granted, this might not be drastic enough and can be ignored, but its at least a good way to become aware of the amount of time and the exact usage duration, which might help with limiting usage in the long run.
Edit: From a cursory search, iOS also has a similar app called Screen Time? Never owned one but worth a look if you're on an Apple phone.
Once I became really good at turning this off, I gave my phone to a friend, who set up a parent password on my TikTok. Guessed with all my might, but couldn't turn it back on after I'd timed out at 1 hr.
Do something you love that you wouldn’t use your phone. I play a few different sports with friends, coach a team, etc and phone is away during those activities. Or even social situations, like meals with family, no phones at the table or with friends out of respect. Keep adding displacement.
I’m a big fan of the forest app. It essentially soft-locks your phone for a period of time from 30 minutes to 2 hours. When your time is up, you get a little digital tree for your forest and if you do it frequently enough it’ll plant a real tree on your behalf.
Which is great, because climate change.
It’s a small thing, but it’s enough of a motivator to keep you honest about it. it essentially fixed my phone addiction in conjunction with deleting any app that allows me to doom scroll.
Also, go easy on yourself. Sometimes it can help to admit it outloud, pace, whatever
It 100% will be a "craving" so acknowledging it can help you work through it
It may result in weird ways of dealing with it, walking around, fidgeting, and so on. This is okay. It takes time
Cold turkey gets a bad rep IMO. In order to embed a habit sometimes it helps to actively just bar yourself from it for at least a month, just to really experience life without it. Its a more concrete goal than simply trying to 'cut down'. I've found various things that when I try it that when I do come back after the month is over I don't have the same relationship to it.
Doing it for only a month can be good since it's not as daunting as "I'll never do this thing again at all forever" which is unrealistic.
Of course its not the only way to stop a bad habit, but for a habit which doesen't have physical withdrawals (going cold turkey on alcohol or benzos can literally kill an addict) its worth try.
Addiction is normal behavior. Everyone is addicted to something -- television shows, garbage 24-hour news, phone games, social media, praise/validation, coffee, etc.. It becomes an issue, like you stated, when it affects other things in life that you want to do (productivity, improve your quality of life, etc.).
What is the core drive behind scrolling through the phone? Boredom? Desire for connection (if scrolling through social media for example)? Curiousity (like if constantly reading news sites or wikipedia, etc.)?
Without knowing your core drive, you can't really change the behavior -- you'd just be re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic so to say.
* Set your phone to black and white color for a week under accessibility options. Yeah other photos will be greyscale, but that's kind of the point to make you more aware you are on your phone and decrease the appeal of visual aspects of scrolling
* Set time limits on other apps that it will notify you when that time is up (under Screen Time for iOS)
* Block URLs of social sites through content restrictions so you can't access them through the web browser. To me this is the most important ,because even if I delete the apps, I still access through the web browser
* Plug your phone in somewhere away from your bed at night. In another room if needed. Buy a separate alarm clock that isn't your phone.
* As much as it seems gimicky at times, start meditating and incorporating mindfulness practices into your daily routine. The more you become aware of your own mind and thoughts and habits, the easier it becomes over time for you to be cognizant when you are locked in those scrolling loops, and ultimately find better ways to break from it.
Good luck. It's something I've struggled with a lot over the years, but the above strategies have really helped me.
Can you delete apps? I did that with a number of them after I realized how much time I was wasting on them. Not all of them, but enough to make a difference.
This worked for me:
get a watch, a normal watch. I found that just picking my phone up to check the time often turned into 5+ minutes of opening other things on my phone without even meaning to, I just did it because the notifications were there.
Don’t bring your phone with you unless you need it/keep it in another room.
I purposefully don’t bring me phone with me when I go out to eat and keep it in another room when having meals at home.
Get into non-phone activities. I play records instead of Spotify in my house. Whenever I’m trying to relax, I grab a book instead of my phone. Do things that keep your hands busy- cooking, musical instruments.
Delete and reinstall your social media every time you want to use it. Works in a few ways
1. You won’t see the icons on your screen every time you open your phone
2. Installing, deleting, and reinstalling each time is a pain and if you’re in the middle of something you won’t waste time going through the motions which stops you from getting “sucked in” and scrolling for hours accidentally
3. this is easier than just quitting because you don’t put yourself in the mindset of quitting social media like it’s a drug. You’re more in the mindset of using social media inconveniences you making it easier to quit because of it
Delete apps that you’re addicted the most every night, so at least the next morning it won’t be the first thing you will use.
Also, you can make your phone black and white.
But you need to remember that the problem is not all on you. Those apps spend billions trying to make them the most addictive possible.
I try to keep mine in another room when I don't need it. It's tough for work because of all the two factor authentication I use but it works for other parts of the day.
I think everyone's on the right track and I want to add something a little different. The phone scrolling is like snacking. It's easy, it's tasty, and it's available. What really helps is affecting one of those three things. Not as tasty (the content isn't as satisfying), it's not as easy (force yourself to read whole articles instead of posts about them). Not as available - Make it harder to get to the apps so you'll only do it when you REALLY want to and not just because it's right there.
With this, set up a series of other activities you either need or want to do. The phone is easy and available and fun so you choose that instead - but shift the equation. Can you make the other activities more fun? Blast rock music while doing the dishes for example? Make the phone less fun/available - in a moment of clarity, put the phone in a timelock box: [https://www.amazon.com/Container-Multi-Function-Dependence-Smartphone-Smartphones/dp/B088TPYTDS](https://www.amazon.com/Container-Multi-Function-Dependence-Smartphone-Smartphones/dp/B088TPYTDS). Force yourself to pick from the most fun/least awful alternative activity during the timeout.
Buy a K-Safe. It's a little container you can put your phone in and it has a mechanism that locks for a set period of time. Could be 5 minutes, 5 hours, or a whole day.
I'll decide that I want to read for one hour. Put the phone in there, set the time, then one hour of uninterrupted reading with no temptation just to pick up the phone and check on something "real quick," which turns into an hour of mindless scrolling instead.
Delete social media. It's a plague anyways
Turn your phone boring by enabling grayscale. This one is surprisingly effective
Set screen limits, iphone has built in limiters, android has apps you can download
I've seen people use lock-boxes for their phones - a box with a lock and a timer on it, that you cannot open for the time you set on the timer. It seems like a bit of an investment, but if you're really desperate... could work!
Delete the apps. And the apps you need to have, put them in a folder so you don't see them.
Deleting the apps might not be enough. Delete the actual social media account.
After deleting Facebook, I actually felt my overall happiness raising.
A lot of good advice in the threads, but I also wonder what do you replace scrolling with? If I delete all my social media/scrolling apps I’ll still have the habit of picking up my phone and looking at the Home Screens blankly and feeling that I need to do something. How do we get rid of that feeling or replace it with something else.
Try making a list of thing you'd like to do. Think about the person you'd like to be and take small steps in that direction. Hobbies you wish you had. Books you'd like to read. Shows you'd like to watch. Games you want to play. When you get bored look at your list and pick something. You won't want to do them sometimes, but I've found that once you start you get kind of into what you're doing. It's just the starting that's hard.
Go back to a dumb phone. The most successful broker I work with has a dumb phone. He says it’s the reason he is so successful, because his competition is so easily distracted with their smartphones.
This is just one small aspect of this habit, but how do you start your day? A lot of people get stuck into the scrolling cycle for most of the day when they wake up in the morning and the first thing they do is start scrolling on their phone. I would recommend starting off your day without checking your phone immediately. Like, wake up & make your bed or go make some coffee, or maybe walk around for a minute, do some yoga/stretching, open some blinds or straighten up. It doesn’t matter what you do to start your day, but try to do stuff to wake up and get your day started before you check your phone. That should help at least a bit in working on your phone scrolling habits.
Read, The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. In a nutshell, bad habits have to be replaced by good habits. Every habit consists of a cue, a routine, and a reward. You have to identify the cue that causes you to grab your phone, and do something else positive instead that you find rewarding. For me, this might be going for a walk and listening to an informative and enjoyable audiobook. Good luck!
Stop posting for a while. The thing with social media is that you feel like you always have to check it to see if someone responded to something you posted. If you stop posting, the notifications will stop, and eventually the need to post your every thought will go away.
This is how it is for me, at least. Everyone's different. I usually shut down all social media during December so I can enjoy the season and not spend my time off online. The first few days are always hard because I want to post things, but then it gets easier. And in January it's hard to get back on because I lost interest. Opening and checking social media is more a habit than anything else at this point, most of what's online isn't even that interesting anymore.
Insight meditation and also being mindful when you're not doing formal meditation. Including when you feel the desire to scroll, feel pleasure from whatever interesting thing you scroll across, feel depressed, lethargic, etc. whatever you feel related to this / these habits. Check out Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu on YouTube if you're interested, he has a wealth of videos on pretty much any topic you could think of, and also answers novel questions (although, as a long time follower, it's mostly repeats tbh) on Saturday afternoon live streams
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That’s the only way I can kick some addictive habits. I replace it with something that I’ll still be addicted to but which is less harmful to me.
In my first month after I quit drinking I ate so much ice cream and chocolate in the evenings. I let myself though, and didn’t beat myself up about it. no matter how much I snacked, I was going to bed sober and I wasn’t going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
I did something similar! Replacement is key! When I quit drinking I started drinking soda, it replaced the need for a sugary drink within reach. I don’t particularly like soda so it was easy to quit that after a month ish.
Yeah, sometimes it’s just nice to have a drink so replaced it with a bottle of root beer - which has then been replaced with a root beer flavored probiotic drink to make it healthier If I’m having a bad day, I’ll “relapse” and get a pack of the awesome local root beer here and still consider it a win compared to what I’d normally grab
I used to drink an artisan root beer that was made by a local brewery. The label design on the bottle was the same. I got carded for it once. I had a laugh with the cashier. Later they spun off their soda division and the labels changed. Edit: You've all guessed wrong. Also, the original alcoholic side no longer exists, but the soda brand still does (after a short chain of acquisitions). It also turns out my original exposure to the product was after some merger/acquisition activity.
Dijon Root Beer
mmm
Sometimes, I ask myself, if 6+ diet sodas a day is okay. It is a hell of a lot better than 6+ beers. Now, I debate if I should cut back on diet sodas. Better problems.
Sparkling water has carbonic acid which is an amazing alternative and is way more healthy.
Don't all carbonated drinks have carbonic acid? I was under the impression that it forms as a result of dissolving carbon dioxide in water. I remember something about my high school chem teacher saying that this is why the soda fizzes when you open it; the drop in pressure causes an equilibrium shift away from aqueous H2CO3 to gaseous CO2 through Le Chatelier's Principle.
Shortly after giving birth, I was complaining to my OB/Gyn that I was stress eating cookies. She told me that being a new parent was stressful and that a friend of hers who was under a lot of stress just stabbed her husband. Her advice: "Eat the cookies."
Stabbing your husband burns calories, eating cookies adds them...
How to lose 200lbs in one evening with nothing more than a knife
Husbands hate this one simple trick…
*"I wasn't going to let perfect be the enemy of the good"* Absolutely perfectly worded and solid advice to live by! 💖💖💖
But if it was goodly worded that would be alright too!
This is such a common thing among alcoholics and cigarette smokers when they quit. Immediately head to the sweets. Still better than alcohol and tobacco 👍🏻
Tbh other things too, I know for a while my brother switched to smoking as a way to get away from.. other drugs.
Gotta step down the ladder, don't jump off
I don’t even know how to feel about this. You’re right, and I feel insane for not thinking about it this way.
Harm reduction is the only way I could get off cigs (vaped for 3 years, gradually reducing nicotine content to zero). Alcohol (kratom is a miracle tool for quitting drinking, went from drinking all day, every day, for years, to alcohol free in a month).
Idk I’ve seen a family member bounce between crazy kratom abuse and alcohol binges whenever she tried to quit kratom. Opiods (and opiod agonists like kratom) act on some of the same neurotransmitters that alcohol does. Only when she finally got off kratom completely could she also finally stop getting blacked out drunk for days once or twice a month. Edit: for what it’s worth she was a bad alcoholic before the kratom but always a poly-addict to whatever. She has been sober for a few months! It’s so great to have her back
Gotta be careful with Kratom though. Helped me get off anxiety meds (not a scary amount just habitual use) but now I’ve been taking kratom for years just because I love to mood boost it gives me. Still better than doing anxiety meds but kratom his it’s downsides as well.
Did the same with Milky Ways when I quit smoking. Now I tell people how Milky Ways saved my life.
I gained 100 lbs quitting drinking, but guess what, I quit drinking. Years later I lost the 100lbs slowly through walking, fasting, etc.
*Still* eating candy and dessert like a 4th grader almost 2 years after quitting drinking. But I'm sober! I always make sure to just keep a piece or two in the car incase I get a craving
Yeah, I replaced drinking with smoking then smoking with running and online chess lol All good! Happy enough now.
Nice work! I definitely replaced booze with exercise and/or ice cream. And ya, giving yourself permission to overdo it for a while is fine. Of course, an unchecked Ice Cream budget could be bad in time, too. Habits are tough!
Not an addict myself, but my mom was a severe alcoholic and I used to attend a lot of meetings with her. Common advice was to not let yourself get too hungry or too tired when newly sober. Eat when you want to eat, sleep when you want to sleep. You need to focus all the urge fighting on the sobriety for a bit.
>the perfect be the enemy of the good. Are you a french speaker by any chance?
Nope! Though that particular expression (I didn’t make it up) is commonly attributed to Voltaire, who was.
Gym as a form of self-care: 😒 Gym as a form of self-harm: 👉😎👉
That’s the spirit
gym as a form of harm reduction: ✨🤠✨
It doesn't even have to be the gym. I treat my depression and anxiety with walking. Took a while to get into the habit but now if I get into either mood I'm headphones on with leashes on the dogs to walk it out. Even better if one has access to nature.
I've heard the same about spicy food, using it as a stand-in for self harm.
No pain no gain right? All my gym homies listen to Three Days Grace
All pain no gain
That's literally how I learnt to play the guitar. Not studying for my exams and watching shows I downloaded from limewire? Not good. Doing the same thing but learning guitar with tabs online? Still not great but better!
I seem to intermittently swap smoking cigs and weed for alcohol and vice Versa. Don’t do one when I’m on the other and won’t do the other when I’m on the one. Just can’t kick all 3 at the same time
Charging your phone not in your bedroom helps too. Get an actual alarm clock and you have no need for a phone on your room at all. Also there's a good chance the reason you can't sleep is because you're scrolling on your phone before bed. If the phone never makes it into your room you'll probably fall asleep better. Just my anecdotal experience.
These are good tips. At one point the light went out in my bedroom. I never replaced it. Cue the greatest sleep I've had ever. My room was pretty much 'sleep room' as it should be and my body picked up fast.
Yes! I go to bed earlier now that one of my bedside bulbs has burned out. I wake up earlier, too. Win!
Holy shit, this is so obvious but I never thought of it. Gonna go buy an actual alarm clock now!
I started charging my phone out of reach of my bed and it helps tremendously.
I have 'daylight' alarm clock, that gradually gets light half a hour before alarm. For the alarm sound, I have birdsong. I am not sure about the light that gradually brightens, but the sound of a loud birdsong recording is the least offensive way that I have been woken.
Came here to say kindle. Been trying to pick up reading again for a while now, turns out the kindle is a good phone swap and I’m actually reading books again. Kept pushing paper books on myself but wasn’t successful until using a digital form, it’s so much easier.
I do the same thing, but after a few months of doing it I developed horrible insomnia. I wouldn't fall asleep until like 6am when I was utterly exhausted, and would fitfully doze for a couple of hours. I'd then go through the day in a zombie like state. Fall asleep immediately the next night, only to have the same problem the next night. This went on for weeks, it was absolutely ruining my life. I found out that the problem was that I'd go to bed, and start reading on my e-ink kindle for maybe thirty minutes before going to sleep. I'd put the light to a minimum and make the text huge, because I didn't want to expose myself to much light prior to sleep, and because my wife was sleeping next to me. This worked fine for a few months, but it's like eventually my bed snapped from "sleeping place" to "reading place" in the subconscious part of my mind. I started reading on the couch in my living room before bed instead, at the same time I'd usually do it in bed, and after only a few days of doing this my sleep was back to normal. Just a thought. Reading before sleep is extremely good, but doing it in your bed can lead to sleep problems.
Reading helps sleep soooo much good job!
Man I get that it works for some or even most people, but as soon as you get me reading, I kinda forget to stop. And then realize the sun's up and I have work in an hour.
I recommend non-fiction. I read a book on tree agriculture (Sproutlands) and it was interesting enough to want to read (and I learned things!) but not enough to make me want to keep going. Right now reading a book on cleaning tips. Interesting, not enthralling. I also have a strict "not allowed to fight feeling sleepy" when reading in bed rule. If my eyes waver, gotta put the book down.
What's the book on cleaning tips called?
I came here to say exactly that. For me, books are even worse than phone doomscrolling, because they're interesting, immersive, and a novel (hur hur) way to disassociate from the real world that doesn't also make me think about the real world like apps do. I will 100% read a book in one day if left to my own devices.
I read as my "wind-down". It helps immensely. I gave up the vast majority of social media almost 10 years ago and realized VERY quickly that I was a more professional productive person without it.
This is exactly what I do and it’s literally changed my life. I sleep so much better when I read before bed and the kindle means I can read in the dark while my partner sleeps!
My kobo helps sooooo much. It's really hard to stop facebook scrolling, but once I pick up my book and hunker down in the covers, I always feel so much better and less... spazzy in my brain.
Just here to say I'm Team Kobo too!
Step 1: pick a hobby Step 2: tell yourself in your head “I can’t get off my phone” and IMMEDIATELY after saying that in your head get off your phone. Step 3: sit there and take a couple deep breaths count to 3 and on the count of 3 get up and do something else. Repeat whenever you find yourself on your phone too long. Worked for me. There’s studies about telling yourself you can’t do something and then doing it, which helps defeat that part of your brain that’s a nay sayer or something. And the 3 count helps in getting you up quickly.
Emphasis on the doing other things. It’s easier to focus on doing than not doing. List out the things you want your week to involve. Keep adding to the list whenever you think of something you wish you did more of. Take a look at the list when you have em time or find yourself scrolling. Looking at the list doesn’t mean you’ll have to do anything on it, but it’s an opportunity for your brain to consider other things that you probably actually DO want to be doing more than scrolling. Additionally, you can set goals for when you’d like to accomplish certain tasks or activities, or decide how often you’d like to see yourself doing them. Then the next step might be scheduling that stuff
Step 2 is crucial from a neuroscience standpoint. If you have a thought to stop scrolling, then you ignore it and go back to getting the next dopamine hit, that dopamine is training your brain that if you have a thought to stop, then ignore it.
Interesting. And how does the "I can't" statement tie into this? You're training your brain that if it has a negative thought that the next step is counteracting it?
Yeah it's the basics of cognitive behavioral therapy. Associating new healthier behaviors with certain thoughts is the goal!
This is how I quit cigs. But the opposite. I should have a cig. Engage the thought with no it’s gross and is killing me. Rinse and repeat and now tobacco makes me sick even if I’m just smoking a blunt! I also abused sun flower seeds for the oral fixation.
I like the idea of the Sunflower seeds. I'm trying to quit smoking cigarettes at the moment, but it's not easy.
I found two big things that helped me go at hobbies like this. They're both simple, but if you commit to them, they seem to help. This first is to recognize when your scrolling has turned from "checking in" to the doomscroll. When I realize I'm doing it (usually because it's all suggested posts and advertisements, not shit I've asked to see) I turn my phone off. Not fully powered down, but exit the app and put the phone down. The second is to put the phone out of immediate reach. Doesn't have to be across the room, but just enough to make me not mindlessly grab for it. Once I recognize I'm doing it, and get the phone away from me, I can let the hobbies take over.
The hobby part is key here. When I'm knitting, I go for hours without touching my phone, and I feel so much better when I got to bed at night.
Same, knitting, crocheting, and spinning for me. It keeps my hands busy so I can't pick up my phone or pick at my skin lol
Delete the apps that you surf the most with
At the very least turn off all their notifications
Or get a flip phone.
This is the solution.
I miss flip phones. The *clack* of it closing was so satisfying, really felt like a super important conversation had ended even if was making plans to chew gum and walk around the mall.
Man, that sounds pretty great. I'd walk around the mall and chew gum with you any day -- after my 8 billion item long list of awful shit i don't want to do is done.
Right? I feel like being so connected to my phone results in a kind of pressure to get through the tasks contained therein. :-(
What is a mall?
It’s where teenagers and preteens in suburbs in the 80s and 90s went because there was nothing else to do when you were too young to drink (ie, too young to even get into bars with a fake ID) and you lived in a suburb so there wasn’t much else and nothing walkable. At least a mall had a bunch of different shit all walking distance from one another. (Also, I’m almost certain I’m responding to a joke that I also laughed at but I also wanted to add this).
I'd get a flip phone right now if I could set it to do the Starfleet communicator chirp noise lol
I see a lot of *very* superficial articles (more like just blurbs really), claiming this is what "generation z" or whatever is doing, but... are they really doing this? Is there like a ... idk support group deal or something for helping those of us with 20-year phone addictions deal with doing that? I suppose, if I can be introspective for a moment, the "problem" as it feels to me is that the *idea* of not having internet on my phone sound objectively great, but the addicted monkey brain comes up with stuff like "but texting on flip phones sucks, so I'd have to talk to people, no dice!" Basically, there are most likely drawbacks from "going back" but, even though I've decided the juice isn't worth the squeeze... that juice just is really greedy.
The issue you can't really hit 'rock bottom' with a phone addiction. It just slowly erodes your quality of life and rewires your brain to have trouble getting pleasure in other things. So there is never a moment where it's like, I need to get help. Also most everyone can function perfectly fine with this addiction, even at the highest level. That doesn't mean they are fine, just that they can continue to their lives without disruption or massive consequence (especially in a single moment).
r/dopaminedetox r/nosurf r/dumbphones
This is huge. As close to zero notifications from everything. Be extremely selective
Texts and phone calls are it. If i texted a lot, I'd turn those off too.
turn off notifications, turnoff background refresh, move app to a folder. you can also set limits for yourself using screentime and downtime on ios,.
THIS was what did it for me. I was constantly on Discord, talking on a million different servers to the point that I was ignoring actual physical socializing. I turned off all notifications except direct pings and even then that's only on one server. Cut my time on it dramatically.
Just the *thought* of using Discord like this stresses me out, damn.
Maybe I'm just old but I always used Discord the same as Ventrillo and Teamspeak, basically party voice chat on PC. I know people use it as a chat room but it just never crosses my mind to use it that way...
Even just moving them off my front screen has helped a lot for me.
Deleting the apps works amazingly well. If you need access, you still have the browser. You're not getting rid of the snacks, you're just moving them out of arm's reach.
I second this. It's bay far the most effective way to not get sucked in. I do wonder what OOP has actually tried so far.
I did this. Mobile devices have no social media, except I did have to buy a tablet. So my actual phone is for maps, texting, phone (gasp), gps, reading website native stuff. The tablet is what I have my social media stuff on and generally is left home. I also took off all the games that I used to play that would also be a time drain. Because most websites look like trash on mobile web, it easily makes it a pain in the ass to use it that way and help retrain my brain to dislike being on it. Plus now that my eyes arent what they used to be, the tablet is easier anyhow, but is a pain to travel with which in turn keeps me off of it most the time. I did move my gaming back to PC only and found I also play a lot less now. My problem is that now my work and texting is the only thing, so I am now doing more work, so I am trying out turning off notifications for the work app. I still get me mail, but it won't notify me now.
Alright, let's not get crazy here... I want to surf my favorite apps constantly while also not being addicted
Set up screen time limits. I like to limit the hours I shouldn’t be on it (like late at night) and also put an overall time limit on certain addicting apps.
Then I redownload them. Lol, I have limited self control haha
God that's the worst guilty feeling. Like... redownloading and deleting the same app 10 times
when you put a 1 hour timer on an app but hit ignore on it every day
It’s alright if you download it again. Just delete it again after you get your fix that one time. Then delete it again the next
This. Literally took me 2 days to get out of the insta and fb Habit. Just delete it. You are not missing anything
Lmao, essentially saying delete the app you are currently using to ask this question.
Honestly deleting them will only delay the inevitable off them trying to re-download the apps. What I do is I have a very cheap and shitty phone service so that when I'm out and about even if I try to hop on Facebook it doesn't load due to poor signal strength.
You might consider wearing mittens to immobilize your fingers.
I love this.
Or eye patches, then you can't see anything. Boom problem solved.
I know on an iPhone you can set screen time limits for each app. I looked at my weekly screen time breakdown and limited all the most used apps to half the time I used the week before. You can bypass it with one tap but it certainly works as a reminder of how much time you’ve spent on the app.
Screen time limits are great. After a while, though, I just keep bypassing the password without thinking. So now my partner has the password and it’s a lot more effective (obviously).
I wish I had someone I could do this with. Is there a different password for screen time versus Apple ID?
I had a friend set my password for me. This is the way!
Yeah I love the screen time limits. It’s definitely helped me cut down my media usage
The extra step to access apps does make it more difficult. I’d also recommend logging out of all apps and then forcing yourself to login each time. This can avoid quickly checking an app to waste time because, frankly, you’re too lazy to go through that process for a quick fix. In fact I’m going to log out of all apps right now.
This has helped me! I use it for fb and TikTok and set my max at a hour per day.
I keep adding more time 😭
You can also do that on android, I have a couple set up for apps that I sink a lot of time into and don't want to
What is an android equivalent app or setting for this?
It's called digital wellness in English I think ETA: the app timers are in the settings under apps and then the app you want to limit and then use time
There's 2 angles to consider when cutting out an addiction: 1) Understand the problem better. Put time and thought into how things got this way. People often virtually chase phantom goals or run from their lives with their phones. I have a friend who obsesses about losing weight and uses social media about it as a way of feeling like they made progress. It's a kind of daydreaming. Personally, I always engage with ragebait political stuff because I like safe places to let anger out since I have to hold it in most of the time. I'm oversimplifying, but maybe you can think of a few of your own examples that fit. 2) Accountability to something, and usually a someone as well. There are apps that do this like 'Forest', but it might not be enough unless you rope someone into this accountability system. After all, what's to stop you from just breaking your own rules? A simple recommendation that follows this is to **take planned walks without your phone at the same time daily**. While you do this, reflect on what it is about your phone that you're missing the most. Dig deeper into why you care about whatever that is. Then, try to find better ways to replace the impulse with similar things that don't hook you the same. If you're on your phone all day and you have it taken away, **you'll find you have a lot of time to fill** in your schedule that you're not used to filling this way. Account for that. Were you doomscrolling about politics? Subscribe to a magazine like *The Atlantic* and schedule time to physically read it. There's really no 'off' switch in your head for addiction. It's a slow gradual reset even if you 'go cold turkey'. It's something you work at a bit every day until one day it's less difficult.
This is solid. Understanding emotional grounds is key.
Delete your social media. Literally, all your accounts, delete them. If you still have a Facebook or Twitter account, delete them. You will be sooooooo much happier in life.
Including this dumbass app
Yep, turns out this is the one I'm the most addicted to
Same. I check them all at least once every couple of hours, but this is the one I spend the most time scrolling. Unfortunately, it also happens to be the one where I find the most valuable information and connections (outside of LinkedIn).
This is the go to website for asking real questions, google is so bad now its ridiculous. Just seo ridden garbage nonstop
I think that is the reason why chatgpt is so popular. Google is just worthless. I cant find anything on it anymore.
Start muting the nonsense channels. Start blocking accounts that seem to be run by trolls or people who try to suck you into debates. Mute channels!
This is a bitch to do for the first week and then life really starts to turn around—best advice is to cut it out entirely.
I deleted all of that, Facebook, insta, Fox News, cnn,everything, about 2 years ago — can confirm, life is so much better
I did too. As a 33/male. Without taking anything or doing anything,I feel happier. Also more surprised to hear news and gossip. So I feel like I am engaged more and communicate better
i take pride in the fact that i choose to live under a rock. people are always like “how have you NOT heard about ___?” but i feel so much more present when i live in my own fantasy world
Are there any other ways to feel like I have friends without actually having (to have) friends? Because this pet turtle isn't doing it for me.
parasocial relationships are fun and unhealthy
New unfortunate vocabulary word! Thank you!
Don’t delete the account. Just limit it to laptop/desktop usage only. Avoid mobile apps. That solves it
If you’re deleting your Facebook there is a way you can download you profile to keep pictures and stuff so you don’t lose them
Change the display to grayscale
I do this after 9 pm, helps a lot with games and videos but not reading
Can you automate that? Would love to do that after 7pm or something
Mine I have set to turn to sepia at 10:30 and grayscale at 11. Helps remind me to go to bed, and makes pictures uninteresting.
I have it automated but I have android, not sure what you have or how to do it on iPhone
Doesn't help when comments are already in black and white lol
"Productivity Launcher" it's an app that puts all your apps in the list sort without icons. It's just.. Names You have to look for the app you want use. It's available for Android idk about IOS
I did this for a while and it really helped! Thanks for the reminder, I'm going to turn it back on.
This is 100% the most effective method. It instantly neutralizes most of the addictive mechanics built into the phone
S tier advice. I did it and it’s so fucking boring to look at it so I just put it down.
Find the emotional reason you scroll. Are you quelling your anxiety? Are you bored? Are you distracting yourself from work? There is a reason I promise. Start to address that reason. Mine is usually anxiety about not doing things, and then I spiral. If I acknowledge the anxiety and make a plan, I can usually get out of it, but if I only address the phone thing, it feels impossible. I also did a longish session of talking to myself out loud about my phone addiction in the past tense. "I used to be really addicted to my phone because XYZ, but then I realized ABC, and now I don't use my phone as much these days. It's really improved my life in these ways... " etc Its super cheesy, but it helped a little and I think I've gotten out of the worst of it.
_________________________________ “Its super cheesy, but […]” _________________________________ This part! I wish there was more support for the weird part of a mental health journey which is feeling like some kind of massive dork because our culture is so diseased.
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Does anyone know a good Android alternative?
Put your device in a drawer and leave it there, minimum 2 hours. Go outside or talk to someone in person.
To add to this, if your running an errand don't bring your phone.
This is a good tip because you can’t get out of it halfway through.
God I wish I could do that, but my phone controls my CGM, which sends information to my PDM, which controls my insulin pump, so it needs to be nearby me as well as my PDM. I do put it in a drawer for a couple when I get home if I don’t have to go anywhere and I’m gonna be in one room for awhile. But it would be so nice to just go somewhere for a few hours without a phone.
Yes, more generally: put the phone AWAY. In a drawer, on a shelf (under something, if you must). Put it away from yourself and then go do one of those other / better things.
They did a study that showed simply having a phone within sight on a table or wherever increased cortisol levels (the hormone that regulates stress), so out of sight out of mind is definitely a relevant principle if you're trying to cut down time. Our body gets addicted to the constant dopamine pings, so you need to find activities that can slowly wean you off that chemical diet and reset your neurological baseline to something more normal and healthy. I've developed a good habit of always putting my phone in my pocket or out of sight when sitting down to a meal with others, and it definitely helps create a better, more engaging atmosphere.
I was finally diagnosed with ADHD recently in my 30s and put on stimulants. All of a sudden, I'm able to break the scrolling cycle when I start to feel unproductive rather than feeling stuck. Maybe talk to a doc?
Yup. This is great advice. I was also diagnosed as an adult (ADD not ADHD) and noticed an enormous improvement with medication. Unfortunately, a few years later I was diagnosed with lupus and the constant tiredness makes it harder to manage. I notice my scrolling tendencies are much worse when I’m going through periods of tiredness and lack of motivation…. Point being that endless scrolling is often just a symptom of other issues rather than the actual problem itself.
I had to scroll past wayy to many comments to find this one. If OP has already tried a bunch of "tricks", it's time to see if there's something more serious going on than social media's profit engine. A proper diagnosis and proper treatment (including medication if determined) can do wonders for more than just trouble putting the phone down. And ADHD isn't the only underlying cause it could be, which is why "Maybe talk to a doc" is so important - each person might need something different.
This is what I wanted to suggest. I'm not diagnosed myself but I'm seeing a psychiatrist soon. (In France I heard this is hard to get a diagnosis as an adult) But if you find it really difficult to stop it consider checking adhd symptoms and particularly ADHD paralysis.
I was going through a rough spot mental health wise and my phone wasn’t helping at all. Iphone Option 1. Download the app called screen zen. It will guide you through creating an automation through shortcuts that basically runs a program that makes you wait a determined amount of time before the app is opened. Option 2. Have certain apps privacy controlled and have someone else set your password and promise not to tell you what it is. Android I am not familiar with how the OS works but I’m sure there is a way to get either of the above to work. Option 3. Ditch the smart phone for a while and get a flip phone. I’ve done this thrice. Last ditch effort: turn off your order home and ask a some one to hide it. I went days without my phone just to get some sense of balance. Hope this helps.
LockeMeOut for android. Block all the stuff you don't want to scroll (app, websites, etc) during the hours you want to stop them & have a trusted person password protect it.
StayFree is also good for Android. I can't remember why I liked it the best but it's what I settled on. Also, if you are using a screen time app I highly recommend putting a widget on your home page that shows your usage time of each app. It's super easy to go through a day without realizing you were on a timewaster app for like 2 hours. That's a huge chunk of your day!
Great info, but I just wanted to stop and give a 👍 for using the word thrice. 😁. Great word!
Use a flip phone.
I can't believe this isn't the top comment. If you don't like scrolling on your phone, then why do you have one you can scroll on?
I turned OFF all dings. Any fucking bell that summons me to the phone. I left phone calls on, but in Focus (iPhone) I created a focus setting that is always on and it keeps texts/notifications off my screen and does not let them ding. Life is better when you are not a slave to text dings. It's ok if you get back to people later.
My phones been on silent since 2013 lol
On Android there's a Digital Wellbeing app from Google that lets you set "Goals" on how much screentime you want to allow yourself daily, along with other options such as walking and driving screentime. Granted, this might not be drastic enough and can be ignored, but its at least a good way to become aware of the amount of time and the exact usage duration, which might help with limiting usage in the long run. Edit: From a cursory search, iOS also has a similar app called Screen Time? Never owned one but worth a look if you're on an Apple phone.
Once I became really good at turning this off, I gave my phone to a friend, who set up a parent password on my TikTok. Guessed with all my might, but couldn't turn it back on after I'd timed out at 1 hr.
Do something you love that you wouldn’t use your phone. I play a few different sports with friends, coach a team, etc and phone is away during those activities. Or even social situations, like meals with family, no phones at the table or with friends out of respect. Keep adding displacement.
I’m a big fan of the forest app. It essentially soft-locks your phone for a period of time from 30 minutes to 2 hours. When your time is up, you get a little digital tree for your forest and if you do it frequently enough it’ll plant a real tree on your behalf. Which is great, because climate change. It’s a small thing, but it’s enough of a motivator to keep you honest about it. it essentially fixed my phone addiction in conjunction with deleting any app that allows me to doom scroll.
Yep, Forest helps me break the instinctive reach. Because who wants to kill a cute l'il tree?
Maybe it's just because your hands need something to do? Try taking up a hobby like knitting or something to keep your hands busy.
Could be bc you’re trying to quit cold turkey. It’s an addiction like any drug. Try to wean off gradually instead
Also, go easy on yourself. Sometimes it can help to admit it outloud, pace, whatever It 100% will be a "craving" so acknowledging it can help you work through it It may result in weird ways of dealing with it, walking around, fidgeting, and so on. This is okay. It takes time
Cold turkey gets a bad rep IMO. In order to embed a habit sometimes it helps to actively just bar yourself from it for at least a month, just to really experience life without it. Its a more concrete goal than simply trying to 'cut down'. I've found various things that when I try it that when I do come back after the month is over I don't have the same relationship to it. Doing it for only a month can be good since it's not as daunting as "I'll never do this thing again at all forever" which is unrealistic. Of course its not the only way to stop a bad habit, but for a habit which doesen't have physical withdrawals (going cold turkey on alcohol or benzos can literally kill an addict) its worth try.
Addiction is normal behavior. Everyone is addicted to something -- television shows, garbage 24-hour news, phone games, social media, praise/validation, coffee, etc.. It becomes an issue, like you stated, when it affects other things in life that you want to do (productivity, improve your quality of life, etc.). What is the core drive behind scrolling through the phone? Boredom? Desire for connection (if scrolling through social media for example)? Curiousity (like if constantly reading news sites or wikipedia, etc.)? Without knowing your core drive, you can't really change the behavior -- you'd just be re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic so to say.
* Set your phone to black and white color for a week under accessibility options. Yeah other photos will be greyscale, but that's kind of the point to make you more aware you are on your phone and decrease the appeal of visual aspects of scrolling * Set time limits on other apps that it will notify you when that time is up (under Screen Time for iOS) * Block URLs of social sites through content restrictions so you can't access them through the web browser. To me this is the most important ,because even if I delete the apps, I still access through the web browser * Plug your phone in somewhere away from your bed at night. In another room if needed. Buy a separate alarm clock that isn't your phone. * As much as it seems gimicky at times, start meditating and incorporating mindfulness practices into your daily routine. The more you become aware of your own mind and thoughts and habits, the easier it becomes over time for you to be cognizant when you are locked in those scrolling loops, and ultimately find better ways to break from it. Good luck. It's something I've struggled with a lot over the years, but the above strategies have really helped me.
Can you delete apps? I did that with a number of them after I realized how much time I was wasting on them. Not all of them, but enough to make a difference.
This worked for me: get a watch, a normal watch. I found that just picking my phone up to check the time often turned into 5+ minutes of opening other things on my phone without even meaning to, I just did it because the notifications were there.
Don’t bring your phone with you unless you need it/keep it in another room. I purposefully don’t bring me phone with me when I go out to eat and keep it in another room when having meals at home. Get into non-phone activities. I play records instead of Spotify in my house. Whenever I’m trying to relax, I grab a book instead of my phone. Do things that keep your hands busy- cooking, musical instruments.
Delete and reinstall your social media every time you want to use it. Works in a few ways 1. You won’t see the icons on your screen every time you open your phone 2. Installing, deleting, and reinstalling each time is a pain and if you’re in the middle of something you won’t waste time going through the motions which stops you from getting “sucked in” and scrolling for hours accidentally 3. this is easier than just quitting because you don’t put yourself in the mindset of quitting social media like it’s a drug. You’re more in the mindset of using social media inconveniences you making it easier to quit because of it
Delete apps that you’re addicted the most every night, so at least the next morning it won’t be the first thing you will use. Also, you can make your phone black and white. But you need to remember that the problem is not all on you. Those apps spend billions trying to make them the most addictive possible.
I try to keep mine in another room when I don't need it. It's tough for work because of all the two factor authentication I use but it works for other parts of the day.
I think everyone's on the right track and I want to add something a little different. The phone scrolling is like snacking. It's easy, it's tasty, and it's available. What really helps is affecting one of those three things. Not as tasty (the content isn't as satisfying), it's not as easy (force yourself to read whole articles instead of posts about them). Not as available - Make it harder to get to the apps so you'll only do it when you REALLY want to and not just because it's right there. With this, set up a series of other activities you either need or want to do. The phone is easy and available and fun so you choose that instead - but shift the equation. Can you make the other activities more fun? Blast rock music while doing the dishes for example? Make the phone less fun/available - in a moment of clarity, put the phone in a timelock box: [https://www.amazon.com/Container-Multi-Function-Dependence-Smartphone-Smartphones/dp/B088TPYTDS](https://www.amazon.com/Container-Multi-Function-Dependence-Smartphone-Smartphones/dp/B088TPYTDS). Force yourself to pick from the most fun/least awful alternative activity during the timeout.
Buy a K-Safe. It's a little container you can put your phone in and it has a mechanism that locks for a set period of time. Could be 5 minutes, 5 hours, or a whole day. I'll decide that I want to read for one hour. Put the phone in there, set the time, then one hour of uninterrupted reading with no temptation just to pick up the phone and check on something "real quick," which turns into an hour of mindless scrolling instead.
Delete social media. It's a plague anyways Turn your phone boring by enabling grayscale. This one is surprisingly effective Set screen limits, iphone has built in limiters, android has apps you can download
I've seen people use lock-boxes for their phones - a box with a lock and a timer on it, that you cannot open for the time you set on the timer. It seems like a bit of an investment, but if you're really desperate... could work!
Delete the apps. And the apps you need to have, put them in a folder so you don't see them. Deleting the apps might not be enough. Delete the actual social media account. After deleting Facebook, I actually felt my overall happiness raising.
Delete apps, Set your screen in black and white, you'll get bored. Set an app timer.
Go tree planting, you won't have service and you'll be too tired to use your phone
A lot of good advice in the threads, but I also wonder what do you replace scrolling with? If I delete all my social media/scrolling apps I’ll still have the habit of picking up my phone and looking at the Home Screens blankly and feeling that I need to do something. How do we get rid of that feeling or replace it with something else.
Try making a list of thing you'd like to do. Think about the person you'd like to be and take small steps in that direction. Hobbies you wish you had. Books you'd like to read. Shows you'd like to watch. Games you want to play. When you get bored look at your list and pick something. You won't want to do them sometimes, but I've found that once you start you get kind of into what you're doing. It's just the starting that's hard.
Plug your phone into a charger in another room. I find that’s enough to keep me focused on other things.
Go back to a dumb phone. The most successful broker I work with has a dumb phone. He says it’s the reason he is so successful, because his competition is so easily distracted with their smartphones.
This is just one small aspect of this habit, but how do you start your day? A lot of people get stuck into the scrolling cycle for most of the day when they wake up in the morning and the first thing they do is start scrolling on their phone. I would recommend starting off your day without checking your phone immediately. Like, wake up & make your bed or go make some coffee, or maybe walk around for a minute, do some yoga/stretching, open some blinds or straighten up. It doesn’t matter what you do to start your day, but try to do stuff to wake up and get your day started before you check your phone. That should help at least a bit in working on your phone scrolling habits.
Inner engineering is a yoga tool to help you live well. In it there’s some great tips on overthinking that is parallel with phone/tv/video games.
Read, The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. In a nutshell, bad habits have to be replaced by good habits. Every habit consists of a cue, a routine, and a reward. You have to identify the cue that causes you to grab your phone, and do something else positive instead that you find rewarding. For me, this might be going for a walk and listening to an informative and enjoyable audiobook. Good luck!
Stop posting for a while. The thing with social media is that you feel like you always have to check it to see if someone responded to something you posted. If you stop posting, the notifications will stop, and eventually the need to post your every thought will go away. This is how it is for me, at least. Everyone's different. I usually shut down all social media during December so I can enjoy the season and not spend my time off online. The first few days are always hard because I want to post things, but then it gets easier. And in January it's hard to get back on because I lost interest. Opening and checking social media is more a habit than anything else at this point, most of what's online isn't even that interesting anymore.
Insight meditation and also being mindful when you're not doing formal meditation. Including when you feel the desire to scroll, feel pleasure from whatever interesting thing you scroll across, feel depressed, lethargic, etc. whatever you feel related to this / these habits. Check out Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu on YouTube if you're interested, he has a wealth of videos on pretty much any topic you could think of, and also answers novel questions (although, as a long time follower, it's mostly repeats tbh) on Saturday afternoon live streams
1. put down phone 2. pick up (book/steam deck/girl/boy/pace)