Supriya Pandey
As time flies, addictions transform themselves into different forms. A person can show his/her addictive behaviours through different behavioural changes such as difficulty resisting change in the obsessive repetition of similar patterns, difficulty having breaks during intervals and feeling physically drawn towards addictive behaviours.
Addiction, of any sort, is a slow poison in itself, making the person co-dependent on it for his/her survival. Recognising addictive behaviour is as important as realising and seeking help. Few examples of such behaviours can reliance on alcoholism, cigarettes, substance abuse, workaholism, overuse of the internet and so on.
Addictive Behaviours
But this isn’t the same case for everyone. Some people, unlike others, can cope well with any sort of exposure to any kind of stimulation. It depends on the person and his/her reaction to exposure to stimulations, history of addictive behaviours, mental and physical health and many more environmental factors.
Some groups are more prone to addictions than others. People who tend to use addictions as means of escapism from their reality or fear, pressure, loneliness etc. are more vulnerable to long term addictions which causes both mental and physical impairment. The most common addiction seen in youth today is undoubtedly internet addiction.
Exposure to the shallow part of the world at a young age causes them to long to be part of the world, to be validated and easily recognised through it. In simpler words, student/teen life is often considered to be a building block for days to come. While this isn’t completely true, this span of life does direct individuals to a secure and worthy future ahead.
Utilising the early phase of life can help a lot in building oneself a guilt-free future. Restraining from such platforms helps build a strong character as an individual. The global pandemic has made our lives lonelier, dysfunctional and discouraging. As an effect of this, people tend to seek comfort in different types of escape mechanisms.
The trend for ‘work from home’ has escalated globally because of which being glued to gadgets is a lot more probable than usual. In such scenarios, certain people of certain age groups especially teenagers seem to be driven towards different stimuli. For example, you will get a notification on your phone. Your first instinct is to grab your phone and check the source of the notification. It was a message sent by your mother to clean your room. In such a scenario, the chemical rush to grab your phone and check the notification is more exciting than the stimulus itself. The cause of that chemical rush is a neurochemical called dopamine.
Dopamine is associated with the drive or craving for the particular stimulation may it be your cell phone, social media, games or so on. However, dopamine is not associated or responsible for whether or not you find pleasure in such activities. Dopamine is also a primary cause of addictive behaviours because it is very compelling and enthusiastic in itself. If you are surfing YouTube then the release of dopamine drives you to watch one more video or watch a little longer more, even if you are not particularly pleased with the content or rather find it a little dull.
This toxic cycle is often the root cause of addictive behaviours, may it be for sources that poison you physically i.e. alcohol, cigarettes, etc. or may it be sources that cause mental impairment and dullness such as web surfing, pornography, social media, games etc. Addiction to alcoholism, cigarettes, substance abuse can be eradicated with the help of rehabilitation and group counselling, but there is no specific way to cure your cellphone addiction, rather than accepting and seeking help.
Avoidance is a great way to gain sobriety from your addiction but avoiding cellphones is not possible in this era where half our work is done from such technological sources. This often leads to overuse of social media and other stimulating platforms which harms mental health in individuals. A paper published in Clinical Psychological Science describes the increase in depression, suicide attempts and suicide that appeared among teens from every background – more privileged and less privileged, across all races and ethnicities and in every region of the country.
All told, the analysis found that a generation of teens born after 1995 were much more likely to experience mental health issues than their millennial predecessors. People from such age groups are vulnerable to such addictive behaviours because of their self-isolating tendency and loneliness. Such gadgets may connect people from all across the world together but they also isolate us from people who are closer to us than the rest. Feeling socially isolated is one of the major driving forces for suicidal cases.
Unhealthy Lifestyle
The research also found that teenagers seem to spend more than 5/6 hours on their phones daily which promotes an unhealthy lifestyle that will directly affect their mental health.
For curing addiction of gadgets or social media, acceptance by such individuals is a must. Taking a break from such sites for 15-20 days also helps a lot in clearing the head. Seeking help from elders or peers is also equally important to avoid such addictions in the days to come.
Individuals who seek help and acceptance should not be scolded for lack of discipline or responsibility but should be counselled properly and helped accordingly. Cellphone addiction over teens is more serious than it is considered to be. A slight change in the routine and a little help and supervision from either elders or peers can make a great difference in their lives. A small act of kindness of one is always a great chance for the other.
(Pandey is a student)
– The Rising Nepal (Friday Supplement)
