Therapist shares practical tips to reduce phone addiction without feeling deprived

Constantly checking your phone may feel harmless, but therapists warn it can quietly turn into a behavioral addiction that affects concentration, sleep, mood and relationships. 

Therapist Nadia Addesi, in a recent Instagram post, shared a practical roadmap for people struggling to break the endless scroll cycle.

According to Addesi, phone addiction begins when the brain starts using the device as its fastest escape from boredom, anxiety, loneliness or overstimulation. 

Over time, reaching for the phone becomes automatic — often without the user even realising it.

She says warning signs include checking the phone before getting out of bed, scrolling during conversations, carrying it from room to room, losing focus mid-task and feeling anxious when it is not nearby. 

Experts increasingly describe this as “problematic use,” with growing evidence that excessive screen time disrupts focus, short-term memory and emotional regulation.

Addesi explains that the brain learns to associate the phone with instant relief: boredom brings dopamine through scrolling, stress finds numbness online, and loneliness seeks validation in notifications. 

But that temporary comfort often leads to fatigue, reduced productivity and rising self-criticism.

To interrupt the cycle, she recommends keeping the phone physically farther away, using grayscale mode, logging out of social apps daily and avoiding screen time immediately after waking up. 

She also suggests a 14-day reset: cap social media use at 30 minutes a day while tracking mood, sleep and focus.

Many users online echo the same advice, saying deleting apps or switching to browser-only access helped sharply reduce compulsive checking.