Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Screens and attention
There is a rough ladder for tech overuse. Build a schedule together with some outside control at first, add substitutes once the person can stop for a while, then more intensive care, and residential only when someone is entirely taken over by it.
The order matters more than the rungs. You cannot install a better alternative in someone who has no capacity yet to put the thing down, so a bit of external structure comes before substitution rather than after it. Having the ladder written down also heads off two familiar mistakes: escalating too fast because a family is frightened, and letting weekly appointments drift on for a year while nothing shifts. Say which rung you are on and what would move you up or down.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Do not be too loud in your prayer, or too quiet, but seek a middle way (Quran 17:110). Pitching the response to the person in front of you, rather than to the loudest fear in the room, follows the same instinct.
قُلِ ٱدۡعُواْ ٱللَّهَ أَوِ ٱدۡعُواْ ٱلرَّحۡمَٰنَۖ أَيࣰّ ا مَّا تَدۡعُواْ فَلَهُ ٱلۡأَسۡمَآءُ ٱلۡحُسۡنَىٰۚ وَلَا تَجۡهَرۡ بِصَلَاتِكَ وَلَا تُخَافِتۡ بِهَا وَٱبۡتَغِ بَيۡنَ ذَٰلِكَ سَبِيلࣰ ا
Say [to them], ‘Call on God, or on the Lord of Mercy- whatever names you call Him, the best names belong to Him.’ [Prophet], do not be too loud in your prayer, or too quiet, but seek a middle way
Qur’an 17:110read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A systematic review and meta analysis assessed cognitive behavioural therapy for internet gaming disorder, the first line psychological treatment, in a field where relatively little was known. A randomised trial with 56 adolescents in Shanghai found an eight session school based group version produced effects that held at longer term follow up. That is genuine support for structured psychological treatment, from small studies in particular populations, rather than evidence for the ladder as a whole.
Stevens MWR, King DL, Dorstyn D, Delfabbro PH. (2019). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for Internet gaming disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy doi
Du YS, Jiang W, Vance A. (2010). Longer term effect of randomized, controlled group cognitive behavioural therapy for Internet addiction in adolescent students in Shanghai.. The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Matching the amount of structure to how much control the person currently has is what makes the next step possible.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
If the phone was giving you company, an evening class in something practical will not cover it. Match what you put in its place to what it was actually providing.
Charge the phone in another room overnight and use a proper alarm clock. Small change, and it takes the decision away from you completely.
When you wave off what your child is into, they rarely hear a comment about gaming. They hear something about themselves.