Tips for phone addiction?

Hey mamas! Hope all is well! Here's a cute picture of my boy!

I am seven months post partum right now. I've had the PPD really bad. I noticed I'm constantly glued to my phone, worse than I ever had been. I'm in therapy working on my health, but I'm still struggling with the phone.

I want to be more interactive with my son, even through the bad parts. I want to be more present with him. I also want to set an example for him because his father and I also don't want him glued to a screen all the time.

I just feel stuck on how to begin. Any tips or suggestions? Thanks! ❤️

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Put it in another room, add limit times to your apps so you can't use them after a certain time?

I struggle with this also. Knowing that you have a problem is a great first step ❤️ I try to treat my phone like a landline at home. I leave it on the kitchen table and (try to) only use it there. Not to bring it with me from room to room. I also have a limit on my social media apps (2hrs/day across all social apps) but lately, I never hit the limit so I think I'll set it for 1.5hrs now!

It will get easier once the baby gets more interested in the phone. Mine is now 2 and I simply can’t use the phone near her without her wanting to take it, to see it etc, so I just don’t use it anymore around her. But I agree the best thing to do is to not carry it around the house with you. I’ve also deleted some social media apps from my home page - they are still on the phone so I can access them but the symbol isn’t staring at me, and that’s really cut down on my time on the app.

I think the best way is to put the phone down and pick something else up. Maybe gardening, or art, or anything else you and bubah can do together that takes your hands and attention. If you are sitting there without something to occupy your self and your hands, you are going to go for that phone for stimulation.

I have this app called Olauncher that makes your phone as minimalist as possible and it's free. I don't know what phone you have but my Google pixel lets me put a pause on apps and if I open them I have a 5 min timer before it closes on its own. It helps with doom scrolling for hours

I am decided I was going to set time limits on apps that I use the most. That has really helped me. Also doing journaling and reading helps.

I set time limits last year that didn’t help much as I could bypass them. Ive now deleted those apps like Instagram, I log on on my web browser every few days to answer messages and I never doom scroll on there as the web browser version is so unfriendly for that! Has helped massively

@Lauren do you know how to do this on an iPhone? X

I've got a Samsung so I'm not sure but it'll be in your settings somewhere I think. That's where I did mine

The apps that you use often you can put a time limit on them in your settings for instance if you don’t want to use it in the day and only allow access once your done has gone to bed maybe

Turn your notifications off for certain apps. I also deactivated Facebook and Instagram about 5 years ago and it was the best thing I’ve done. I deleted most people on Snapchat and turned those notifications off too.

My phone has a dark mode which puts everything in black and white (Google pixel, and I think it's part of bedtime mode). It turns off all notifications, and i can set it to come on at certain times or have it on all the time. It's been great to avoid doom scrolling for me.
I totally sympathise with you though - it's so hard when you feel isolated and phones are the only way to feel some kind of contact with other adults, when you use it to capture their milestones or to Google advice. You aren't alone in this ❤️

Delete social media. Has worked for me for years. You don’t need it. This app is all I have

You could also request to work on this in therapy. CBT is very good for changing this type of habits.

@Amy yes it’s in the settings

I love your self awareness, that is such a huge step already! 🌸 this may not be for everyone but what can be very helpful is switching your phone to an older, simple one that isn’t a smartphone, so no apps on it. Only the essentials, calling and texting. That way, there is no unmindful scrolling. Most of the apps like social media etc are available on a laptop/computer, so if really needed, still accessible, but it becomes very difficult to scroll mindlessly because of all the extra steps to get there (open the laptop, login etc).

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Is this a regular problem for others or is my anatomy wonky? 🤣