Hypnotherapy for Phone and Screen Overuse

“Phone addiction” is a popular phrase, but it is not a formal diagnosis. The Wikipedia article on problematic smartphone use notes that the DSM has not codified it, that widely accepted treatment recommendations do not yet exist, and that links with mental health problems have not been shown to be causal. What the article does describe is a checking habit driven by reward, and practical changes aimed at it. Hypnosis can help you rehearse those changes.

Why is checking so hard to stop?

Because it is rewarded. The article quotes Elliot Berkman, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon, who describes constant checking as driven by reward learning and fear of missing out: notifications have felt good in the past, so the brain repeats the behavior. A 2011 study cited in the article found that 70 percent of people checked their phones within an hour of getting up.

It helps to ask what kind of use is the problem. The article describes a framework from Kostadin Kushlev, a psychology professor at Georgetown University, with three categories:

• Displacement: phone use replacing something more meaningful, such as time with people or finishing a task.
• Interference: phone use interrupting something, such as checking notifications during a conversation.
• Complementarity: phone use that supports what you are doing, such as a map while traveling.

The goal is usually to cut the first two, not the third.

What practical changes help?

The article lists behavioral approaches:

• Abstaining from the phone, or from specific apps, for set periods.
• Disrupting the routine, so the usual pattern is broken.
• Goal-setting, reminder cards and a list of alternative activities, such as exercise, music, art or reading.

It also describes setting changes that make the phone less appealing or less available: grayscale mode, airplane mode, turning off data or Wi-Fi, switching the phone off, and removing specific apps. For more serious overuse, it lists cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing and family therapy among the approaches used for internet addiction, which may also apply to phone overuse.

Can hypnosis loosen the pull of the phone?

With the moment of reaching for the phone. A session can:

• Rehearse your main cues: waking up, waiting, boredom at work, lying in bed, and a planned response for each.
• Build a pause: a breath and a question, “displacement, interference or useful?”, before unlocking.
• Rehearse the alternative: picturing yourself picking up the book or stepping outside instead.

Treat hypnosis as a way of practicing the behavioral changes above rather than as a separate treatment.

One safety point

Never check your phone while driving. The article notes that reading a text can take your eyes off the road for about five seconds, and at 55 miles per hour that is about 400 feet traveled blind.

A measure for two weeks

Check your phone’s screen-time report and note your daily total and number of pickups. Make two setting changes and one if-then plan, rehearse the plan daily, and compare the numbers after two weeks. Count time lost to displacement and interference, not time spent on maps or calls you needed.

This article is general information, not medical or psychological advice; talk with a licensed clinician about your own situation.