June 30, 2025 • 20 mins
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What happens when the soothing glow of screens becomes a dangerous escape hatch for our children's emotions? In this revealing episode, addiction interventionist Matt Brown tackles the increasingly alarming phenomenon of screen addiction sweeping through younger generations.
Drawing from groundbreaking research published in the Journal of American Medicine, Matt explores how digital dependency correlates with rising rates of depression, anxiety, and even suicidal ideation among adolescents. The findings are sobering: nearly 18% of youth in the study reported suicidal thoughts, with addiction to screens—not merely screen time—being the critical factor. Most troublingly, many children as young as ten report using devices "to forget about problems," mirroring the exact psychological patterns seen in substance addiction.
This conversation strikes particularly close to home as Matt candidly admits his own struggles with healthy technology boundaries. "I find myself using technology in unhealthy ways too," he confesses, highlighting the unique challenge parents face: how can we guide our children when we're fighting the same battle? Rather than offering simplistic solutions, Matt invites listeners into a thoughtful reflection on modeling healthier relationships with technology and creating family environments where digital devices enhance rather than replace human connection.
Whether you're a parent worried about your child's screen habits, an educator witnessing changing classroom dynamics, or someone questioning your own relationship with technology, this episode offers valuable perspective on one of modern life's most pervasive addictions. Subscribe to Party Wreckers, share your own strategies for healthy tech boundaries, and join the conversation about raising resilient kids in a digitally saturated world.
Join us Every Sunday at 8:00 PM PST and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Night at 8:00 PM EST/5:00PST for a FREE family support group. Register at the following link to get the zoom information sent to you: Family Support Meeting
About our sponsor(s):
Intervention on Call is on online platform that allows families and support systems to get immediate coaching and direction from a professional interventionist. While a professional intervention can be a powerful experience for change, not every family needs a professionally led intervention. For families who either don't need or can't afford a professional intervention, we can help. Hour sessions are $150.
Therapy is a very important way to take care of your mental health. This can happen from the comfort of your own home or office. If you need therapy and want to get a discount on your first month of services please try Better Help.
If you want to know more about the host's private practice please visit:
Matt Brown: Freedom Interventions
Follow the host on TikTok
Matt: @mattbrowninterventionist
If you have a question that we can answer on the show, please email us at matt@partywreckers.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Party Wreckers podcast, hosted by
seasoned addictioninterventionist, Matt Brown.
This is a podcast for familiesor individuals with loved ones
who are struggling withaddiction or alcoholism.
(00:22):
Perhaps they are reluctant toget the help that they need.
We are here to educate andentertain you while removing the
fear from the conversation.
Stick with us and we will getyou through it.
Welcome the original partywrecker, Matt Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Party
Wreckers podcast.
My name is Matt Brown.
I'm your host.
I am an addictioninterventionist.
I work with families who haveloved ones that struggle with
addiction, who need professionalhelp but are not going to be
willing to choose that help forthemselves.
I'm so glad you found thepodcast.
I'm so glad you're here.
(01:06):
If you've been here before,welcome back.
Before we jump into today'stopic, let me just remind
everybody that now, five nightsa week, intervention on Call has
free family Zoom calls where wesupport families who are going
through what many of you arelikely going through right now,
(01:26):
and that is you have a loved onein active addiction and they're
reluctant to get help.
You're not quite sure how tohave that conversation with them
or move that conversation in abetter direction, but you're
also not quite sure what itmight be like to talk to an
interventionist and actually getsome feedback in real time.
And so we do this five nights aweek.
(01:48):
Now, monday through Thursday,it's 8 pm Eastern time, and then
on Sundays we do a special WestCoast call at 8 pm Pacific time
.
We want there to be a placewhere families in crisis can
come have a conversation with aninterventionist where we're
(02:09):
going to give you real-timefeedback On these calls.
We are not trying to upsell youanything.
We are trying to answerquestions.
We are trying to provide youwith strategies, with language,
with ideas on how to move yoursituation forward so that you
actually don't need to havesomebody like me come into your
living room and do anintervention with your loved one
(02:31):
.
Sometimes that's necessary, butI don't ever want that to be
the first conversation thatwe're having.
And so now, five nights a week,we do this for free for
families.
If you're interested in being apart of those Zoom calls, you
register atinterventiononcallcom.
Thank you for that.
Now on to today's topic.
(02:52):
This is a little bit of adifferent I don't want to say
spin, but I'm going to take.
We're talking about every kindof addiction today, if that's
the right way to phrase this.
It's something that has beenincreasingly more on my radar,
both in my private practice asan interventionist and in
talking with families, and it'saffecting younger and younger
(03:16):
individuals.
Basically, the earlier somebodygets a cell phone, the earlier
this problem starts, and thatwe're talking about screen
addiction.
This has been something thatI've actually gone and traveled
and done in-person interventionsfor people struggling with
screen addiction or technologyaddiction, and we're talking
(03:38):
about social media, we'retalking about gaming.
While that includes phones andmobile devices, we're also
talking about gaming systems andjust time spent on screens as a
whole.
And it's hard because this ismore one of those process
addictions almost like an eatingdisorder or workaholism or
(04:01):
something like that where youalmost can't function in today's
society without a screen, butat the same time it can become a
problem.
And it's also becoming aproblem more and more for the
younger generations, and so asthey get phones and devices put
in their hands earlier andearlier, the problem starts.
(04:22):
I mean all of my kids.
They don't carry textbooksaround anymore.
The schools issue them an iPadat the beginning of the school
year and that's where they doall of their work, and so, even
from an educator standpoint, allof this is happening on a
screen.
And so, while technology hashuge advantages and my kids when
(04:44):
I tell them that iPads hadn'tbeen invented when I was their
age, that the internet hadn'tbeen invented when I was their
age, they can't imagine a lifewithout that.
And you know, here we are onegeneration later and they're
completely dependent on it inmany ways, as am I.
You know I include myself inthis.
I use a phone and a tablet anda computer and all of those
(05:08):
things, and I'm constantly onscreens, both for entertainment
and for work, and so it's alittle bit of a tricky subject,
I guess is what I'm saying.
But the study that I'm going tobe referencing today was
published in the Journal ofAmerican Medicine.
It correlates not necessarilyscreen time with an increase in
(05:30):
suicidal ideation and suicidalbehaviors, but particularly
addiction associated withscreens and suicidal ideation
and suicidal behavior.
What the study found and let mesay this from the outset is
that the amount of screen timedid not dictate an elevation in
(05:50):
risk of suicide, that they didnot determine what they were
looking at, and they trackedabout 4,000 young people from
the time that they were about 10or 12 years old until they were
a little bit older.
I think that this study went onfor four or five years, if I
remember correctly.
They studied about 4,000 kidsand they would periodically
(06:12):
interview them to assess for youknow, are you becoming addicted
to social media, to screens?
And here's what they saidAssess, assessing them
periodically for both theiraverage daily screen time as
well as for symptoms ofaddiction which allowed them to
see how these addictivebehaviors changed over time.
(06:46):
For addiction, you know, withsubstance use disorder, alcohol
use disorder, there are specificquestions that will indicate
whether or not you actually meetcriteria for substance use
disorder or alcohol use disorder.
They adapted those samequestions to apply to social
media and screens and gaming,and so some of the questions on
the questionnaire were you know,true or false?
(07:07):
I spend a lot of time thinkingabout social media apps or
planning to use social mediaapps, true or false.
I try to use social media appsless, but I can't True or false.
I feel stressed and or upset ifI'm not allowed to use my
social media apps, True or false.
I use it so much already.
It has a bad effect on myschoolwork.
(07:29):
Now some of these hit home alittle bit for me because I can
get caught doom scrolling when Igot nothing else better to do,
and I'm sure that there areplenty of people listening to
this right now that may feellike they're in the same
category.
You know, obviously, in thecontext of what we're talking
about today, we're reallyfocusing on young people, but I
think this applies just as muchto us and we need to kind of
(07:52):
take this to heart.
As we're talking about thistoday, I also want to make it
clear and I guess I should saythis from the outset is that you
know if your kid has a phone,if your kid, you know, has an
iPad, those kinds of things likethat.
I am not here to say youshouldn't be doing that.
This is not a commentary onanybody's parenting practices.
(08:12):
I want to be really, reallyclear on that, because my kids
have phones and my kids havedevices that they use for school
.
This is certainly somethingthat hits home for me, and so
let's just go from there and tryto keep that part of what we
ordinarily might judge.
Let's just kind of keep it offthe table.
(08:36):
So what they found as they beganto ask these questions at
different intervals throughoutthese young people's development
from around 10 years old to 14or 15 years old with social
media, they found that almost60% had low levels of addiction
to social media and that stayedstable over the years.
(08:56):
So about 60 percent had a lowlevel addiction and that didn't
change.
That stayed at that low levelfor the duration of the study.
About a tenth had an increasingaddiction that peaked around
year three or four of the studyand a third showed increasing
addiction throughout the entirestudy.
(09:17):
So there were basically threedifferent metrics that they saw,
three different levels ofaddiction that they saw, the
largest, of course, being a verylow-level addiction that really
didn't change over time.
About a 10% sliver of the studyhad an increasing addiction
that peaked at about three orfour years and then 33% showed
(09:41):
an increasing addictionthroughout the entire.
So from the time they were 10to the time they were 15, the
addiction continued to increasein strength over the course of
those four or five years.
With mobile phone use, abouthalf showed high addiction and a
quarter had increasingaddiction.
So mobile phone use across theboard, regardless of what they
(10:03):
were doing with their mobilephones, whether they were
texting or on social media orjust mobile phone use altogether
, they found that about half hadhigh level addiction.
So that same 33% that showedthat increasing addiction over
time about half of that.
When they looked at justspecifically mobile phone use,
(10:26):
about half of the people in thestudy met criteria for the high
level of addiction and a quarterhad the increasing addiction.
With video games, they foundonly two groups about 60%,
showing low-level addiction thatstayed stable over time and 41%
that were highly addicted to itthroughout the entire period.
(10:47):
I know that's 101%.
I'm not exactly sure how theyarrived at those numbers, but
about 41% said they were highlyaddicted to it throughout the
entirety of the study.
So here's where things get alittle bit tricky and a little
bit scary.
At year four of the study,nearly 18% reported having
(11:08):
suicidal thoughts and 5%admitted to suicidal behaviors,
which includes making suicideplans and attempts.
That's higher than normal, andso when you look at a study of
4,000 people, 18% of them hadsuicidal thoughts, and this
correlates to levels ofdepression and anxiety that
(11:31):
we'll get into here in just afew minutes.
About 18% had suicidal ideation.
They thought about ending theirlives.
About 5% actually had attemptsor plans when they started
assessing for, okay, why dothese devices have such a hold
(11:55):
on the minds and the thoughts ofyoung people?
And what they found is thatthese young people were using
devices, games, social media inthe same way that a lot of young
people, and even people our age, my age use substances
(12:16):
addictively as we get older.
That these young people at 10to 15 years old.
One of the statements they gotfrom the questionnaire was I
play video games so that I canforget about my problems.
That was kind of a common themethroughout social media use,
(12:37):
phone or tablet use in generaland video game use is that many,
many, many of the of the peoplethat were in in the study said
that they used these devices toforget about their problems, and
that's where this kind of allties together.
Is that, for those of us thatbecome addicted, that's where
the addiction really lives, inthat I don't want to have to
(13:00):
feel what I'm going to feel ifI'm not using this to run away
from the feelings, from theproblems.
Avoidance is a key symptom ofboth anxiety and depression and
depression.
So as we start looking at howthis is a mental health issue,
(13:22):
that's really what we're talkingabout is that when we start
getting into the behavior ofavoidance, it is a major symptom
for both anxiety and depression.
When you look at 10 to15-year-olds that say that
they're running away from theirproblems in video games, in
social media, in phone andtablet use, to me that speaks
volumes.
It says that we've got ageneration of young people
(13:44):
coming up that are finding much,much earlier than my generation
did, that there's something outthere that can make them feel
better.
There's something out therethat can give them that dopamine
hit that they're looking for.
That scares me Because whatthat tells me is that heaven
forbid these young people everdiscover drugs or alcohol,
(14:06):
because it's going to make gamesand social media and
electronics use pale incomparison, and that's the scary
part for me is that we aregoing to have a generation that
already has been addicted,that's going to now step into an
arena that becomeslife-threatening.
(14:29):
As somebody who works in thisfield, who's somebody who's
lived the life of addiction,that really, really scares me.
As a dad, that scares mebecause I look at my kids.
You know when they're notengaged in something.
Oftentimes I find them with aphone in their hand.
You know whether they'rescrolling through videos on
(14:49):
YouTube or whether they'replaying a game or whether
they're texting their friends.
It's very common to see my kidswith a phone in their hand, and
I'm sure that a lot of you guysfeel the same way.
It's very common for me to havea phone in my hand, and I'm
sure that there are times thatI'm doing that to avoid dealing
with some of my problems,whatever they might be.
A lot of this is okay.
(15:10):
How am I going to be an examplein my home for my kids of what
healthy technology use lookslike, and how am I going to
model for them how to betterregulate and manage some of the
things that I go through in away that it's not heavy handed?
Hey, kids, look at me, I'mdealing with my depression in a
(15:31):
different way or I'm dealingwith my anxiety in a different
way.
I don't want to avoid myproblems today in the way that I
have before.
That's not what I'm talkingabout, but really just to kind
of help them understand likethere are better ways to do this
, model that behavior for them.
Because at least in my home, Ifind that when I try to be overt
(15:53):
about it and when I try to bemore direct about it, the
message is not received as well.
And I don't know about you guys, but when I can be more of an
example by behavior or lead bybehavior, kind of dad, things
seem to go a little bit better.
With this particular issue.
It's hitting home, I guess, iswhat I'm saying with me
(16:13):
currently, where a lot of timesI speak about my drug use or
alcohol use as a past tenseissue.
Today I'm talking to you aboutpresent tense and the fact that
I do find myself usingtechnology in a way that is
probably unhealthy, and I hopethat there are some of you out
there that that might strike achord with as well, because, as
(16:34):
parents, I think that if we canadmit that we're powerless and
that our lives are unmanageable,as step one says, hey, maybe we
can overcome this as well andthe next generation won't have
to suffer the same fate.
I'm not trying to get preachyhere on you guys, but certainly
I think that this is a topicworth discussing.
The one thing that the studydid say is that the more time
(16:55):
kids spent on social media, themore their depressive symptoms
increased.
I don't want to belabor thepoint here.
I certainly just wanted tobring this to your attention.
This will be a shorter episodethan normal, but I just thought
that it was worth discussingbecause this article really
jumped out at me, and it'scertainly something that more
(17:18):
and more over the years, I havebeen doing interventions on
people, especially young men whohave gone to college, who find
themselves gaming, missingclasses, failing out of school.
There may or may not be othersubstances being used, but
certainly there's an underlyingissue that they're trying to run
away from and their copingstrategy is I'm just going to
(17:40):
play video games all day, or I'mjust going to be on social
media all day, or I can't stoptexting my friends, and so I've
constantly got this phone infront of my face.
It's becoming as disruptive inmany of the lives of young
people as drugs or alcohol are,but because it's a behavior that
many of us as adults engage inand have problems with and I
(18:03):
speak for myself as well is thatwe have problems with this.
It's harder for us, withoutfeeling hypocritical, to lead by
example, and so I guess mychallenge, both for myself and
for you guys today, is, you know, let's let's take stock of
what's going on in our lives andin the lives of the people that
live with us.
(18:23):
Let's let's take a look at whathealthy technology looks like
in our homes and and and let'slook at how this is affecting
relationships, because, at theend of the day, when I do
interventions, the thing that'ssuffering most as I walk into
that home is the relationshipbetween the members of that
(18:44):
family, and there's usually astraight line that can be drawn
from the substance use or thealcohol use and fractured
relationships.
Sometimes we don't want to drawthat straight line between
technology use and fracturedrelationships, but I know that
if I were to adjust my behavioraround screen time and around
(19:05):
phone use and around work, thatmy relationships with my kids
would probably get better.
I guess that's my challengetoday is, let's take stock of
how we're doing this, and Iwould love some feedback from
you guys, because, while thisjumped out at me this week for a
topic for the podcast, I findmyself just in some of the
problematic behavior myself, andso I'm curious to know that, as
(19:28):
you guys, as listeners, do youhave this going on in your life,
in the lives of people, in yourhomes?
How are you dealing with it?
Do you have strategies thathave helped you in your homes
that you might want to sharewith me and, by so doing, share
with other people?
I would love some feedback onthis topic, if you have it.
As a dad, as a professional inthis field, this is one area
(19:51):
where I find myself lessequipped with better knowledge
and better practices than Iwould with substance use and
alcohol use, and so I'd lovesome feedback on this from you
guys.
You can reach me atmattatpartywreckerscom.
And, as always, guys, I hopeyour loved ones will get sober
and stay sober.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Talk to you later.
Ones will get sober and staysober.
Talk to you later.
Us a question we can answer ina future episode.
Please visit us atPartyWreckerscom and remember
don't enable addiction ever.
Welcome to the Party Wreckers podcast, hosted by
seasoned addictioninterventionist, Matt Brown.
This is a podcast for familiesor individuals with loved ones
who are struggling withaddiction or alcoholism.
(00:22):
Perhaps they are reluctant toget the help that they need.
We are here to educate andentertain you while removing the
fear from the conversation.
Stick with us and we will getyou through it.
Welcome the original partywrecker, Matt Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Party
Wreckers podcast.
My name is Matt Brown.
I'm your host.
I am an addictioninterventionist.
I work with families who haveloved ones that struggle with
addiction, who need professionalhelp but are not going to be
willing to choose that help forthemselves.
I'm so glad you found thepodcast.
I'm so glad you're here.
(01:06):
If you've been here before,welcome back.
Before we jump into today'stopic, let me just remind
everybody that now, five nightsa week, intervention on Call has
free family Zoom calls where wesupport families who are going
through what many of you arelikely going through right now,
(01:26):
and that is you have a loved onein active addiction and they're
reluctant to get help.
You're not quite sure how tohave that conversation with them
or move that conversation in abetter direction, but you're
also not quite sure what itmight be like to talk to an
interventionist and actually getsome feedback in real time.
And so we do this five nights aweek.
(01:48):
Now, monday through Thursday,it's 8 pm Eastern time, and then
on Sundays we do a special WestCoast call at 8 pm Pacific time
.
We want there to be a placewhere families in crisis can
come have a conversation with aninterventionist where we're
(02:09):
going to give you real-timefeedback On these calls.
We are not trying to upsell youanything.
We are trying to answerquestions.
We are trying to provide youwith strategies, with language,
with ideas on how to move yoursituation forward so that you
actually don't need to havesomebody like me come into your
living room and do anintervention with your loved one
(02:31):
.
Sometimes that's necessary, butI don't ever want that to be
the first conversation thatwe're having.
And so now, five nights a week,we do this for free for
families.
If you're interested in being apart of those Zoom calls, you
register atinterventiononcallcom.
Thank you for that.
Now on to today's topic.
(02:52):
This is a little bit of adifferent I don't want to say
spin, but I'm going to take.
We're talking about every kindof addiction today, if that's
the right way to phrase this.
It's something that has beenincreasingly more on my radar,
both in my private practice asan interventionist and in
talking with families, and it'saffecting younger and younger
(03:16):
individuals.
Basically, the earlier somebodygets a cell phone, the earlier
this problem starts, and thatwe're talking about screen
addiction.
This has been something thatI've actually gone and traveled
and done in-person interventionsfor people struggling with
screen addiction or technologyaddiction, and we're talking
(03:38):
about social media, we'retalking about gaming.
While that includes phones andmobile devices, we're also
talking about gaming systems andjust time spent on screens as a
whole.
And it's hard because this ismore one of those process
addictions almost like an eatingdisorder or workaholism or
(04:01):
something like that where youalmost can't function in today's
society without a screen, butat the same time it can become a
problem.
And it's also becoming aproblem more and more for the
younger generations, and so asthey get phones and devices put
in their hands earlier andearlier, the problem starts.
(04:22):
I mean all of my kids.
They don't carry textbooksaround anymore.
The schools issue them an iPadat the beginning of the school
year and that's where they doall of their work, and so, even
from an educator standpoint, allof this is happening on a
screen.
And so, while technology hashuge advantages and my kids when
(04:44):
I tell them that iPads hadn'tbeen invented when I was their
age, that the internet hadn'tbeen invented when I was their
age, they can't imagine a lifewithout that.
And you know, here we are onegeneration later and they're
completely dependent on it inmany ways, as am I.
You know I include myself inthis.
I use a phone and a tablet anda computer and all of those
(05:08):
things, and I'm constantly onscreens, both for entertainment
and for work, and so it's alittle bit of a tricky subject,
I guess is what I'm saying.
But the study that I'm going tobe referencing today was
published in the Journal ofAmerican Medicine.
It correlates not necessarilyscreen time with an increase in
(05:30):
suicidal ideation and suicidalbehaviors, but particularly
addiction associated withscreens and suicidal ideation
and suicidal behavior.
What the study found and let mesay this from the outset is
that the amount of screen timedid not dictate an elevation in
(05:50):
risk of suicide, that they didnot determine what they were
looking at, and they trackedabout 4,000 young people from
the time that they were about 10or 12 years old until they were
a little bit older.
I think that this study went onfor four or five years, if I
remember correctly.
They studied about 4,000 kidsand they would periodically
(06:12):
interview them to assess for youknow, are you becoming addicted
to social media, to screens?
And here's what they saidAssess, assessing them
periodically for both theiraverage daily screen time as
well as for symptoms ofaddiction which allowed them to
see how these addictivebehaviors changed over time.
(06:46):
For addiction, you know, withsubstance use disorder, alcohol
use disorder, there are specificquestions that will indicate
whether or not you actually meetcriteria for substance use
disorder or alcohol use disorder.
They adapted those samequestions to apply to social
media and screens and gaming,and so some of the questions on
the questionnaire were you know,true or false?
(07:07):
I spend a lot of time thinkingabout social media apps or
planning to use social mediaapps, true or false.
I try to use social media appsless, but I can't True or false.
I feel stressed and or upset ifI'm not allowed to use my
social media apps, True or false.
I use it so much already.
It has a bad effect on myschoolwork.
(07:29):
Now some of these hit home alittle bit for me because I can
get caught doom scrolling when Igot nothing else better to do,
and I'm sure that there areplenty of people listening to
this right now that may feellike they're in the same
category.
You know, obviously, in thecontext of what we're talking
about today, we're reallyfocusing on young people, but I
think this applies just as muchto us and we need to kind of
(07:52):
take this to heart.
As we're talking about thistoday, I also want to make it
clear and I guess I should saythis from the outset is that you
know if your kid has a phone,if your kid, you know, has an
iPad, those kinds of things likethat.
I am not here to say youshouldn't be doing that.
This is not a commentary onanybody's parenting practices.
(08:12):
I want to be really, reallyclear on that, because my kids
have phones and my kids havedevices that they use for school
.
This is certainly somethingthat hits home for me, and so
let's just go from there and tryto keep that part of what we
ordinarily might judge.
Let's just kind of keep it offthe table.
(08:36):
So what they found as they beganto ask these questions at
different intervals throughoutthese young people's development
from around 10 years old to 14or 15 years old with social
media, they found that almost60% had low levels of addiction
to social media and that stayedstable over the years.
(08:56):
So about 60 percent had a lowlevel addiction and that didn't
change.
That stayed at that low levelfor the duration of the study.
About a tenth had an increasingaddiction that peaked around
year three or four of the studyand a third showed increasing
addiction throughout the entirestudy.
(09:17):
So there were basically threedifferent metrics that they saw,
three different levels ofaddiction that they saw, the
largest, of course, being a verylow-level addiction that really
didn't change over time.
About a 10% sliver of the studyhad an increasing addiction
that peaked at about three orfour years and then 33% showed
(09:41):
an increasing addictionthroughout the entire.
So from the time they were 10to the time they were 15, the
addiction continued to increasein strength over the course of
those four or five years.
With mobile phone use, abouthalf showed high addiction and a
quarter had increasingaddiction.
So mobile phone use across theboard, regardless of what they
(10:03):
were doing with their mobilephones, whether they were
texting or on social media orjust mobile phone use altogether
, they found that about half hadhigh level addiction.
So that same 33% that showedthat increasing addiction over
time about half of that.
When they looked at justspecifically mobile phone use,
(10:26):
about half of the people in thestudy met criteria for the high
level of addiction and a quarterhad the increasing addiction.
With video games, they foundonly two groups about 60%,
showing low-level addiction thatstayed stable over time and 41%
that were highly addicted to itthroughout the entire period.
(10:47):
I know that's 101%.
I'm not exactly sure how theyarrived at those numbers, but
about 41% said they were highlyaddicted to it throughout the
entirety of the study.
So here's where things get alittle bit tricky and a little
bit scary.
At year four of the study,nearly 18% reported having
(11:08):
suicidal thoughts and 5%admitted to suicidal behaviors,
which includes making suicideplans and attempts.
That's higher than normal, andso when you look at a study of
4,000 people, 18% of them hadsuicidal thoughts, and this
correlates to levels ofdepression and anxiety that
(11:31):
we'll get into here in just afew minutes.
About 18% had suicidal ideation.
They thought about ending theirlives.
About 5% actually had attemptsor plans when they started
assessing for, okay, why dothese devices have such a hold
(11:55):
on the minds and the thoughts ofyoung people?
And what they found is thatthese young people were using
devices, games, social media inthe same way that a lot of young
people, and even people our age, my age use substances
(12:16):
addictively as we get older.
That these young people at 10to 15 years old.
One of the statements they gotfrom the questionnaire was I
play video games so that I canforget about my problems.
That was kind of a common themethroughout social media use,
(12:37):
phone or tablet use in generaland video game use is that many,
many, many of the of the peoplethat were in in the study said
that they used these devices toforget about their problems, and
that's where this kind of allties together.
Is that, for those of us thatbecome addicted, that's where
the addiction really lives, inthat I don't want to have to
(13:00):
feel what I'm going to feel ifI'm not using this to run away
from the feelings, from theproblems.
Avoidance is a key symptom ofboth anxiety and depression and
depression.
So as we start looking at howthis is a mental health issue,
(13:22):
that's really what we're talkingabout is that when we start
getting into the behavior ofavoidance, it is a major symptom
for both anxiety and depression.
When you look at 10 to15-year-olds that say that
they're running away from theirproblems in video games, in
social media, in phone andtablet use, to me that speaks
volumes.
It says that we've got ageneration of young people
(13:44):
coming up that are finding much,much earlier than my generation
did, that there's something outthere that can make them feel
better.
There's something out therethat can give them that dopamine
hit that they're looking for.
That scares me Because whatthat tells me is that heaven
forbid these young people everdiscover drugs or alcohol,
(14:06):
because it's going to make gamesand social media and
electronics use pale incomparison, and that's the scary
part for me is that we aregoing to have a generation that
already has been addicted,that's going to now step into an
arena that becomeslife-threatening.
(14:29):
As somebody who works in thisfield, who's somebody who's
lived the life of addiction,that really, really scares me.
As a dad, that scares mebecause I look at my kids.
You know when they're notengaged in something.
Oftentimes I find them with aphone in their hand.
You know whether they'rescrolling through videos on
(14:49):
YouTube or whether they'replaying a game or whether
they're texting their friends.
It's very common to see my kidswith a phone in their hand, and
I'm sure that a lot of you guysfeel the same way.
It's very common for me to havea phone in my hand, and I'm
sure that there are times thatI'm doing that to avoid dealing
with some of my problems,whatever they might be.
A lot of this is okay.
(15:10):
How am I going to be an examplein my home for my kids of what
healthy technology use lookslike, and how am I going to
model for them how to betterregulate and manage some of the
things that I go through in away that it's not heavy handed?
Hey, kids, look at me, I'mdealing with my depression in a
(15:31):
different way or I'm dealingwith my anxiety in a different
way.
I don't want to avoid myproblems today in the way that I
have before.
That's not what I'm talkingabout, but really just to kind
of help them understand likethere are better ways to do this
, model that behavior for them.
Because at least in my home, Ifind that when I try to be overt
(15:53):
about it and when I try to bemore direct about it, the
message is not received as well.
And I don't know about you guys, but when I can be more of an
example by behavior or lead bybehavior, kind of dad, things
seem to go a little bit better.
With this particular issue.
It's hitting home, I guess, iswhat I'm saying with me
(16:13):
currently, where a lot of timesI speak about my drug use or
alcohol use as a past tenseissue.
Today I'm talking to you aboutpresent tense and the fact that
I do find myself usingtechnology in a way that is
probably unhealthy, and I hopethat there are some of you out
there that that might strike achord with as well, because, as
(16:34):
parents, I think that if we canadmit that we're powerless and
that our lives are unmanageable,as step one says, hey, maybe we
can overcome this as well andthe next generation won't have
to suffer the same fate.
I'm not trying to get preachyhere on you guys, but certainly
I think that this is a topicworth discussing.
The one thing that the studydid say is that the more time
(16:55):
kids spent on social media, themore their depressive symptoms
increased.
I don't want to belabor thepoint here.
I certainly just wanted tobring this to your attention.
This will be a shorter episodethan normal, but I just thought
that it was worth discussingbecause this article really
jumped out at me, and it'scertainly something that more
(17:18):
and more over the years, I havebeen doing interventions on
people, especially young men whohave gone to college, who find
themselves gaming, missingclasses, failing out of school.
There may or may not be othersubstances being used, but
certainly there's an underlyingissue that they're trying to run
away from and their copingstrategy is I'm just going to
(17:40):
play video games all day, or I'mjust going to be on social
media all day, or I can't stoptexting my friends, and so I've
constantly got this phone infront of my face.
It's becoming as disruptive inmany of the lives of young
people as drugs or alcohol are,but because it's a behavior that
many of us as adults engage inand have problems with and I
(18:03):
speak for myself as well is thatwe have problems with this.
It's harder for us, withoutfeeling hypocritical, to lead by
example, and so I guess mychallenge, both for myself and
for you guys today, is, you know, let's let's take stock of
what's going on in our lives andin the lives of the people that
live with us.
(18:23):
Let's let's take a look at whathealthy technology looks like
in our homes and and and let'slook at how this is affecting
relationships, because, at theend of the day, when I do
interventions, the thing that'ssuffering most as I walk into
that home is the relationshipbetween the members of that
(18:44):
family, and there's usually astraight line that can be drawn
from the substance use or thealcohol use and fractured
relationships.
Sometimes we don't want to drawthat straight line between
technology use and fracturedrelationships, but I know that
if I were to adjust my behavioraround screen time and around
(19:05):
phone use and around work, thatmy relationships with my kids
would probably get better.
I guess that's my challengetoday is, let's take stock of
how we're doing this, and Iwould love some feedback from
you guys, because, while thisjumped out at me this week for a
topic for the podcast, I findmyself just in some of the
problematic behavior myself, andso I'm curious to know that, as
(19:28):
you guys, as listeners, do youhave this going on in your life,
in the lives of people, in yourhomes?
How are you dealing with it?
Do you have strategies thathave helped you in your homes
that you might want to sharewith me and, by so doing, share
with other people?
I would love some feedback onthis topic, if you have it.
As a dad, as a professional inthis field, this is one area
(19:51):
where I find myself lessequipped with better knowledge
and better practices than Iwould with substance use and
alcohol use, and so I'd lovesome feedback on this from you
guys.
You can reach me atmattatpartywreckerscom.
And, as always, guys, I hopeyour loved ones will get sober
and stay sober.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Talk to you later.
Ones will get sober and staysober.
Talk to you later.
Us a question we can answer ina future episode.
Please visit us atPartyWreckerscom and remember
don't enable addiction ever.
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