Digital Addictions: A Family Guide to Prevention, Signs, and Treatment

This comprehensive guide from Children and Screens addresses digital addiction in youth, drawing on expertise from clinical specialists, researchers, and parents with lived experience. Digital addiction encompasses problematic behaviors including gaming, social media use, pornography viewing, gambling, shopping, and video streaming, and occurs when dopamine-driven instant gratification from screens overwhelms the underdeveloped prefrontal cortex in children and teens. Warning signs include inability to stop despite trying, neglect of important life areas like sleep and relationships, withdrawal symptoms, and changes in hygiene and behavior. The guide offers prevention strategies such as encouraging alternative activities, creating family media plans, and modeling responsible use, while treatment approaches emphasize listening without judgment, harm reduction over "cold turkey" methods, establishing routines, and seeking professional help when needed. The goal is helping children balance high-dopamine activities like gaming with low-dopamine activities requiring more effort and patience.

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