This includes all social media platforms; including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and WhatsApp.
Addiction is defined as the repeated use of a substance or activity, to the point of harmful consequences.
With social media, the addiction is a process or activity that fulfils a mental or emotional need, ranging from escape to identity. According to the rehabilitation centre Healing Wings, there is definitely an increase in the number of people affected by social media addiction.
“The reasons for this are numerous. Mainly there is a generation now that has grown up with social media as a companion for as long as they can remember. This early exposure increases the likelihood of addiction from youth, when perceptions and views are still in their formative phases,” said Healing Wings spokesman David Lacey.
Lacey continues by explaining how social media addiction actually works.
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“Every time you check your phone, or get a notification, like, share, comment or message, your brain releases dopamine. All of the social media entities; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat; all intentionally use a process known as dopamine cycling to keep their users hooked. The idea is simple.
Every learned behaviour or completed task causes a small release of dopamine in the brain which makes the person feel good. When that dopamine wears off, the person will seek more and return to the most readily available source.”
Symptoms of this addiction can include depression, anxiety, tiredness, sleeplessness, irritability, poor eating habits and a loss of interest in hobbies.
Read more: Video gaming as addictive as cocaine and gambling World Health Organisation finds
However, the magazine, Psychology Today, said, “The good news is that very few people are genuinely addicted to social media. However, many people’s social media use is habitual and it can start to spill over into other areas of their lives and be problematic and dangerous, such as checking social media while driving”.
How social media addiction should be treated:
- Removal from the environment in which the addiction is active in, as well as the substance or activity itself and admittance to a long-term treatment centre.
- A combination of therapeutic approaches (cognitive behavioural therapy, group therapy, didactic therapy, individual counselling) aimed at breaking the denial surrounding the addiction.
- Once truth begins to surface, and denial is broken, work can begin on the underlying issues and pathologies that led to the addiction.
- The person can then begin to process all of the resentments, harmful relationships, poor choices and hereditary factors.
- At this stage, growth and building up of character allows the person to gain confidence in themselves and begin to repair relationships with their family or loved ones.
- This all takes a minimum of six months, after which the person is expected to live out a new life far removed from their past, outlined in an aftercare plan with clear guidelines as to relationships, expectations and restrictions.
- Social media-specific restrictions could include an agreement to never use social media again. The severity of an addiction often warrants such drastic measures if sobriety and freedom are desired.
