Hi Tech Addiction

The ways we are sharing perceptions and feelings about our lives have begun to require more technical support than the human warmth that has characterized our past. We text. We email. We tweet. We twitter. We blog. ......none of which encourage the depth of feeling and closeness we have previously experienced. We are connected by technical, computerized and smart phone addiction. These "advances" in our culture have infected us so slowly and so gradually that we have ceased to recognize the ways they have contaminated our relationships.

SO, HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE THIS AFFLICTION?

1. Your relationships can often be described as virtual.

2. You "message" friends rather than hold their hands or hug their shoulders.

3. You have many short-term connections rather than long term friendships.

4. Even with hundreds of Facebook friends, you feel lonely and depressed.

5. You feel nervous when you don't have your smartphone with you.

6. You are fearful of "missing out" on what is happening in you social circle

when you don't have your digital telephone or your lap top with you.

HOW TO BEGIN CURING YOUR AILMENT

1. Recognize the triggers that lead you to reach for your smartphone. Are you lonely? Are you bored?

2. Observe and admit the differences between relating on-line and having personal interactions.

3. Know that you can feel calmer and safer when you see someone face-to-face and make eye contact.

4. Learn coping skills for stress that do not involve technical assistance - like chatting with friends and family.

5. Ask yourself if your smartphone and computer use distract you from strains that you may have trouble recognizing.

6. Turn off your phone and computer at particular times every day.

7. Play "phone stack"- when you are blessed to be with others, agree that all people involved will put their phones face down on the table and even if the phone buzzes or beeps, no one is allowed to grab it.

8. Know that cognitive behavioral therapy can provide you with step-by-step ways to stop your compulsive, non-personal communication patterns and it can also change your perceptions about smart phones and the internet. It can further help you to learn smarter ways to cope with the stress, anxiety and the depression that maybe fueling your smartphone and computer.

9. Please remember that there is more power in a good strong hug than hundred of clicks on any keyboard.

Please Feel Free To Contact my Office Anytime

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