Your cell phone is the most potentially-dangerous device in your possession, when it comes to your mental health. Many individuals now go through their day “glued” to their phones, unable to put them down for more than a few minutes at a time. This is incredibly unhealthy for the mind.

Cell Phone Addiction

Addiction to your phone is a very real thing. Modern cell phones, the games and apps on them, social media, and even the operating system itself is designed to be a dopamine-release device.

• • You get a “hit” of feel-good chemicals released in your brain when you see new notifications on apps.
  • Endless scrolling is meant to lock you into a “feed” as you derive sensory pleasure from the images shown in quick succession.
  • News Headlines and little bits of information keep you feeling like you are “connected” and “up-to-date” on all important matters.
  • You begin to turn to your phone when you need to feel better (texting someone for support, posting on social media, or endless scrolling to distract yourself from your feelings). Self-medicating your mental health woes with your cell phone begins to happen quickly — as most people feel phones and the pleasure they can give as innocent or not as dangerous as using drugs or alcohol to get the same feelings of pleasure.

Cell Phone Addiction and Codependency

Co-dependency is when someone is dependent on another person to help them, to the point where it is toxic and negative for both parties. Co-dependency goes beyond simply helping another person, and creates a situation where the co-dependent individual begins to take advantage of the individual offering help. This “taking advantage” is called “Enabling” a co-dependent individual.

Enabling a Co-Dependent Addict is NOT Helping Them

Allowing someone’s mental health and addiction issues to go-on untreated is NOT helping. If the “helping” allows the addict to continue their unhealthy habits, rather than helping them to overcome them, then it is simply not “help” at all. For example, if you help a drug addict to avoid taking responsibility for their actions and addictions, you are allowing them to continue to use drugs and possibly endanger themselves.

With cell phone addiction, allowing a person to continue with their unhealthy cell phone habits, or contributing to their unhealthy cell phone habits, is not helping them and is only enabling the addict further.

Constant Calling and Texting with Cell Phone Addiction

Texting and calling becomes “obsessive” with a cell phone addiction, and goes far beyond healthy “check-ins.” Many cell phone addicts need to text or call family and friends multiple times per day (whenever they are feeling low, lonely, or ’empty’). The texts and calls may have no point to them (just reaching out for any response for validation), or an individual may start problems or create drama just for a reason to text and call others.

Social Media and Cell Phone Addiction

Social Media platforms like Facebook (Meta), Instagram, Snapchat, Etc. are all designed to be heavily addictive, so they can keep your attention and keep you using the apps more and more. These apps actively create new features that grab your attention and hold it, regardless of whether or not it is healthy for your mindset. Social Media in 2024 more resembles slot-machine design than good user-interface and features that people want.

Social media was never as addictive as it is now that it is on a cell phone. The negative and addictive nature of cell phones, coupled with that of social media apps, creates a perfect storm of addictive behavioral practices and puts it in your hand at all times.

Gambling Addiction and Cell Phone Addiction

Gambling addiction has spread like a wildfire in recent years, and it can all be tied back to one point — when “betting” apps became popular on cell phones. For years, severe gambling addicts had struggled with online casinos and computer-based betting games that allowed them to continue their gambling addictions from the comfort of their own homes. When these jumped from a stationary computer to right in the palm of their hands, gambling addicts now were able to gamble and continue their disease 24/7.

Fantasy Sports, Cell Phone Betting Apps, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Did you know that OCD sufferers are more likely to suffer from alcohol use disorders, drug use, and addiction disorders? Did you know that those with OCD are more prone to betting and gambling habits? Obsessive Compulsive Disorder makes you both “Obsessive” and “Compulsive.”

Those with gambling and betting problems tend to be obsessive about “tips” or an “edge” they feel they have. Many are also obsessive over numbers or connections and their “hidden meanings.” Many gamblers are obsessed with “hitting big,” or trying to achieve the jackpot of a lifetime, and it takes over their lives. Gambling is more about obsession than luck or skill when it takes over your life.

Compulsiveness can accompany obsession, or a person can be thoughtlessly compulsive. Either way, a compulsive person never makes a good gambler. Compulsive disorders are characterized by a person taking actions without giving thought to the reaction and consequences of that action. In-short, a compulsive gambler does not think about consequence of their bet (win or lose), they are stuck in the moment and get their pleasure from the action of the bet — not necessarily the prospect of winning.

When you have a gambling problem and the casino is right in your hand at all moments of the day, it allows you to obsess about it all day. It also allows you to make compulsive bets quickly without having to think about it too much. This makes online betting and gambling apps incredibly dangerous to those with a gambling addiction, and treating the addiction to the phone is the first priority.

Cell Phone Addiction and Relationship Issues

At AZRI, a good majority of the relationship issues we see between couples have something to do with cell phones. Jealousy issues stem from Instagram for both men and women. Misunderstood text messages (either between couples or texts to a third party) cause a lot of today’s problems between otherwise happy couples. Cell phone addiction is one of the most poisonous habits that can ruin a relationship, as your total attention is taken away from you and those you love, and it is focused squarely on your phone and what it decides to show you.

Cell Phones Cause Bad Moods

Waking up and checking your phone first thing in the morning is a terrible way to start your day, because your mood for the following activities is going to be tainted by your first morning experience with the phone. Something as simple as a depressing headline or post from a friend can spoil the rest of your day. This carries over into your love life and your relationship with family, and many other problems can grow from this point.

Many couples who successfully overcome the issues that cell phones cause are surprised to see how strong a hold the one device had over their emotions and actions.

Couples Therapy For Cell Phone Addiction

Many couples BOTH share a cell phone addiction, and both need help to re-learn how to live and love without a cell phone in the mix. At AZRI, our couples therapists can help you to remove the thorn in your life and learn how to be happy again without all the complications that technology brings to life.

We encourage all couples that have had a fight over cell phone use, or apps to try and take a break from their cell phones to see if that helps. If you find the time without a cell phone was beneficial, or cannot put down the phone long enough to try, then you should consider seeking couples therapy for cell phone addiction.