A few days ago, I started working on an important project. However, while working on it, I found myself going through some funny videos. Hours later, I realized that I was nowhere near getting my task completed and regretted my doing so. I remember unlocking my phone to search for something, but somehow I got distracted halfway through and ended up watching some irrelevant video and then, until I lost track of time, I went again on a scrolling spree.

This incident made me curious. I became more aware of my phone usage and came to the realization that this incident was not a one-time thing and I had been spending too much time on my phone without even realizing it. So, I decided to find out just how much time I was actually spending on my phone each day using a screen time recording app. The result was a big surprise as my lenient guess turned out to be much smaller than the actual staggering number. This took me into a rabbit hole of wanting to know why we spend so much time on our digital devices and fail to get our work done.

I noticed that it was not just me struggling with this issue. A few of the adolescent clients I recently helped were dealing with problems like social anxiety, depression, and attention deficiency. Parents of each of these clients blamed digital addiction as the source of these mental health issues. While excessive digital usage could be a contributing factor to mental health issues, it is not the sole culprit causing the ailments. For a lot of individuals, digital addiction could just be a means of escaping from reality and the already existing stress in their lives.

These technologies have become an intricate part of our daily lives. However, it becomes a significant problem when digital usage takes the form of an addiction which causes an individual to have an impairment or distress due to their inability to refrain from such actions.

A chemical called dopamine plays the biggest role in taking us from merely using digital devices to becoming addicted and controlled by them. The unlimited access to entertainment provided to us by these technologies release a huge amount of dopamine in our brain. Dopamine makes us seek pleasure and it encourages us to repeat the activities that we find enjoyable. And, since our bodies did not evolve to handle sudden surges of Dopamine when we engage in such activities, the more we use it, the more we become dependent on it, just like drugs. Hence, the vicious cycle of addiction starts where we repeatedly carry out such activities to get that constant high amount of dopamine.

To figure out if you or someone you know has a digital addiction, looking out for some of its indications could be helpful. The most obvious sign would be the lack of control over digital use; characterized by prolonged usage that is difficult to stop once started. It might also be that constant urge to check and use the phone. When digital usage is completely cut off for a day or two, withdrawal symptoms like irritability, anger, anxiety, depression, and brain fog may become visible.

Researchers have indicated that extreme stimulation that our brain gets from the usage of digital devices along with the dopamine surge, results in the brain getting fatigued. It leads to slower activity in the brain, which in turn hinders the ability to think or focus properly. It has been found to occur alongside psychological issues like internet induced Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), depression, anxiety, social anxiety, and aggression. This co-occurrence does not necessarily imply that digital addiction causes these disorders; rather, the individual who already has them may be overusing their devices to alleviate the discomfort caused by their psychological concerns. Even physical health conditions like insomnia, excessive cravings for sugary, fat, or junk food, back and muscular issues like Tech-Neck, and obesity may occur due to long-term digital addiction.

There are things we can do to protect ourselves from this digital drug. Even though complete abstinence from digital devices is not a feasible solution in today's world, tracking daily device usage through apps can provide insights into the problem. Setting reminders and taking regular breaks from technology can help break the cycle of excessive dopamine release. For children and teenagers, parents can establish a balanced screen time schedule where the real-world activities take up at least twice as much time as using digital devices.

However, in cases of severe addiction, or when this addiction is accompanied by psychological conditions such as attention deficiency, depression, or anxiety, consulting a mental health professional would be necessary. Treatments for these coexisting conditions along with managing digital addiction would be essential in such cases.