Understanding of addictions and practical solutions

Whether it is the addiction to social media, smoking or lying also called compulsive liars. One thing is common in them, their addictive behaviour.

The scariest part is you are aware of the problems it is causing but you feel like there is a force working on you that is making you to want it more.

So first we are going to understand the addiction meaning, where it comes from, and what are the practical solution that I also used to reduce my social media addictions.

What addiction actually is ?

Let’s take smoking for example why do you think smokers keep smoking knowing that it can cause lung cancer? Have you given it a thought?

If you ask them their usual answer would be that it’s their choice or it’s their life but the reality is something different.

Their body is craving the nicotine and they are forced by the mind to take it otherwise withdrawal symptoms start kicking in and if any of you smokes you may know what I am talking about.

So addiction is basically your body telling you to get the substance in order to get that high state again without caring for the damage it can cause to your body.

What is social media addiction ?

Imagine you are studying and working on assignments but after a few minutes, your mind starts worrying about social media handles to check whether you missed something .

So before you know it you have checked over 17-18 times in a 20 min study session, this is social media addiction.

Your brain is craving the dopamine punch it gets from scrolling news feeds and chatting.

Without condemning social media, we are going to understand the root cause of problem.

Who is the actual culprit for our addictions?

To say bluntly it is your mind, social media is not the culprit here you can’t actually blame a knife for murder, can you? it is the person who holds the knife.

Our mind works on a reward and punishment system it is hard-wired inside the brain from mother nature.

What it means is our mind craves those things that make it pleasurable like social media, smoking, sex, etc., and avoid things that cause pain, for example, you don’t want to fall from a motorcycle if you once felt pain, situations that are uncontrollable, etc.

What are the Solutions for social media addiction ?

Until now you have understood – what is social media addiction?  ,  what is the root cause of the problem? in this section which is the star of this blog, we are going to learn about ways to counter these addictions healthily without drugs.

Step 1 ) Changing behaviour patterns by the method of Awareness

Awareness has become hocus pocus now-a-days thousands of blogs and books are written on the awareness that really complicate things.

It is not something you practice or learn, your mind has already the quality to know what is going on in your brain, thoughts, and emotions.

Awareness is power of mind to obeserve. You know exactly what thoughts are running and what you are feeling right now, without giving it a name just see and feel without judgment or condemnation .

How this will help me?

It makes you aware of the repeated behaviour pattern that you were unaware of and doing it unconsciously earlier you don’t have a choice.

But now you are observing your cravings and bodily urges that will create a gap of decision, now even though your body is having withdrawal symptoms you can decide to go with urges or decide not to do it since the power to move your body is in your hands.

You will find your cravings will reduce each time.

Step 2 ) Biochemistry of dopamine and Exercise.

Do you know that artificial substances like social media, opium, and drugs force our brain to produce happy chemicals in our brain like dopamine, endorphins etc?

So the brain got addicted to chemicals, not that substance we do and if we suddenly stop using it our mood will crash down which causes major depression, anxiety, and anger.

So in order to counter that low mood, we need natural healthy dopamine and endorphins which our body produces when we exercise, have a good conversation with friends, and help others without selfish reasons.

Sex also produces dopamine but that will also become an addiction if you are not careful.

How this will help me?

There is no set exercise you can do 1hr of any exercise daily, condition is your heart rate should be up and you should be breathing heavy example- I do cycling, sprints, push-ups, pull-ups, etc in the park.

That will help you to counter low moods when you first leave the substance which is social media in our case.

Step 3 ) Mind Constantly telling you to check your phone – solution

If you are like me, I had a habit of checking every notification that pings even when I was doing important work, I felt anxious if I don’t check my phone.

How i counter it ?

While I was doing awareness I realized my mind is telling me that something very important is on your notification .

I cross-question if there was such an emergency what would normal people do to reach, call many times right? so that breaks my pattern now I understand I don’t have to check every 5 min anxiously to not miss an emergency notification.

If there is such an emergency people can always call.

How this will help me?

Breaking illogical thoughts can change behavioural patterns of mind. Being aware and asking the right questions is the key and increasing the gap between decisions and impulsive action.

Step 4 ) You need to endure and be patient

Changing your behaviour pattern is a very challenging job it requires great willing power and patience.

Wish I can just say like other bloggers that are giving clueless motivation and tips that they don’t actually apply themselves.

But don’t just quit after reading this you come to this blog for a reason right ? let that be your reason.

How this will help me?

This will not only help you in winning over addictions but you will find your whole personality from inside has changed.

You will be one step closer to the reason you come to this blog.

Step 5 ) Condemning your addictions and guilt – A big mistake

How many times have you tried to leave your addictions and fall into a circle of repetitive guilt and start condemning your addictions and yourself for this?

A very big mistake that many people do that keeps them in this cycle of addiction.

You need to understand that addiction is raised due to body and brain responses that you were not aware of earlier. Now you have understood that your mind is the centre of all mischiefs and that can be conquered.

How this will help me?

Accepting is the first step in improving, now you know your addictions. You can see it arising in your body as withdrawal symptoms.

Step 5 ) Deleting social media won’t work

How many times have you deleted social media platforms and installed them again in a few hours or minutes with frustration?

Let me ask you if there is some problem with the engine of your car would fixing its tires solve the problem no right?

So the issue here is not social media, it’s actually a great tool to connect with people of the whole world with a tap of few buttons.

“The only thing we need to mind is our mind itself “

How this will help me?

It saves your energy from fixing the wrong things and focussing energy on the right things.

Step 5 ) Use software like digital wellbeing to track usage and the number of times you unlock the device.

You can use any software on android and ios to track your daily social media usage and the number of times you unlock the device.

You will be shocked to see how many times you actually unlock the device in a day.

How this will help me?

It is very easy to compare when we see statics now you exactly know how much you should use your mobile and in bonus there are timers you can use on app.

That app will lock itself after a set time.

Step 5 ) Set your hours for daily usage of social media.

If I say stop social media completely in this generation that is the most impractical advice to give any person.

What I want for you is to not run away from anything you just need to set how much time you are going to give to social media.

30 -40 min usage is enough throughout the day more than that becomes a problem.

How this will help me?

This will help you to maintain a healthy relationship with social media, you can definitely use it but the problem comes when apps start using you.

Step 6 ) Bonus tip – spending time with people that actually care.

When I was a teenager I too myself think that my family only thinks about themselves and want to control me but as soon as I grew up, I realize they are the people that stand beside me when a problem comes.

Try to spend some time with them even if it is awkward at first at starting.

Because nobody in this cruel world helps you without any selfish motive except your family and some people in your life.

How this will help me?

You will feel less need to connect with virtual people on social media. When you know that actual people are sitting beside you that actually care for you.

Takeaway

“You don’t need to run away from social media , you just need to start building control over your mind and give social media its right place.”

Use the methods discussed above and i say it again try connecting with your family that is the only thing you need.

Human is social being that’s why it needs interaction with people that care.