A recent survey by Deloitte found that two thirds of Irish people want to spend less time on their phones, while 70% of them check them first thing in the morning. 

But what’s the difference between wanting to spend less time on a phone and tech addiction?

On Moncrieff, Dr Nicholas Kardaras, CEO of Omega Recovery, said the people who come to him have “fallen into a digital rabbit hole where they can’t function anymore”. 

They are typically aged between 17 and 32 and usually it is their family who raise concerns about their behaviour. 

“Usually the client themselves will think that maybe the problem is a passing issue - maybe it's the parents overreacting?” he explained. 

“But typically they have failed out of school; their social lives have collapsed.

“It's a significant issue, it's not a minor behavioral problem - these are people whose life functioning has totally been impaired by their addiction to their devices, but they don't always see it.”

Women watching a video on mobile phone. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

When considered if someone has an addiction to tech, Dr Kardaras said it is similar to diagnosing other addictions. 

“The main diagnostic feature is, is the use of my device compromising or negatively affecting all the domains of my life?” he said. 

“Are my relationships suffering? Is my physical health suffering? Are my academics or my work suffering? 

“Typically what we're seeing is the more you're on your device, higher rates of anxiety, depression, all the negative mental health metrics seem to spike and correlate with people that have an unhealthy relationship with their device.

While it might not be apparent to a sufferer that they have a problem, Dr Kardaras said it is often quickly apparent to him and his staff. 

“Someone that's been on the screen since they were two years old or three years old, they act differently,” he said. 

“The screen affects things that we don't often think about; we know that it increases depression and anxiety, but creativity gets hampered, problem solving. 

“There's a flat look into their eyes because they're been overstimulated, but they're desensitised, they're easily bored, easily dysregulated emotionally.”

'An unhealthy crutch'

Overall, Dr Kardaras believes that reaching for a phone has in many ways become the 21st century of “picking up the cigarettes” after a stressful day of work or college. 

“It's an anxiety relieving de-stressor, but it becomes an unhealthy crutch,” he said. 

However, treating tech addiction can be difficult - especially if a sufferer has been over exposed to devices from a young age. 

“Because of a thing called neuroplasticity, some of these effects can be reversed if a person then gets back into healthy and mindful digital usage,” he said. 

“There are some things like attention, the doubling of ADHD over the last 10 to 15 years, I think it's a direct result of screen time. 

“If you don't develop your ability to attend, to focus, to stay on task at these key windows, usually between the ages of three and eight years old, that window, like language acquisition, if you don't learn the language within a certain developmental window, you're going to be lifelong compromised in language acquisition. 

“It's the same with screens, if you're stunting a child during the key developmental window, there is a point of no return there.”

Treatment

Anyone who checks into Dr Kardaras' Omega Recovery typically spends as much as a month and a half without their devices. 

It allows them to reconnect with people and the world around them. 

“You're unplugged for four to six weeks, traditional psychotherapy,” Dr Kardaras said. 

“But also a lot of nature immersion, outdoor activities, because we want the person to start experiencing the dopamine high of everyday living, playing basketball, going on a hike in nature, being around other people, having fun and socialising without the screen.

“That's a big part of it.”

Overall, Dr Kardaras believes there is “hope” out there, but warned that tech addiction “doesn't spontaneously reverse itself without some proactive intervention”.

Main image: A young man using his phone. Picture by: Alamy.com.