It was a normal Wednesday evening. I just pulled into the driveway after a long day at the office, came into the home, and greeted the children one by one.
Michelle and I hung out in the kitchen before dinner. As we began catching up on the day, we hit a relational blockade that was essentially impassable until we had a serious; “come to Jesus” moment. Here’s what happened:
“Michelle how was your day?”
Immediately after asking my wonderful bride the first question of the day, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket to inform me something in my digital world had happened.
As she began to engage me in the question and tell me about the joys and sorrows of the day, my mind slowly began to wander from the conversation with my wife, and I began to start imagining what was awaiting me on the other end of my phone.
Was it good news or bad news? Did I offend someone today or encourage someone? Did I make money on my stocks or did they lose? Within minutes, my wife’s voice slowly faded from sharp and distinct to something where she sounded like the teacher on Charlie Brown “wah, wah, wah, wah”.
Addicted to Your Phone
That’s when I realized that I might be “Addicted to my cell phone”. CNN and other major news sources are now calling “Self-Phone Addiction” a new problem with the Millennial generation [1].
Let me suggest 3 Reasons why you may want to consider silencing your phone and engaging in the real world that is actually right in front of you.
#1- Managing your phone addiction empowers you to manage your more fatal addictions.
Studies show that there are actual endorphins every time we grab our phone and light up the screen. There’s a quest per se…”What will be on the screen?”, “Who will be pursuing me?”, “How many re-tweets or likes did I get?”
Each journey into the phone is a pursuit of that endorphin. You master that pursuit of lesser things (like cell phones) you will have great capacity in fighting the bigger addictions (opioids, hydrocodone, adderall, alcohol, porn, etc.)
#2- Managing your phone addiction leaves you alone with, uhm, well….yourself.
Instead of taking all the dead space in life and filling it with digital noise, killing the “phone co-dependency” leaves you in a fearful space…a space alone, by yourself.
Too many of us are looking to our phones to give us what only God and real humans can give us; intimacy, joy, and security. Turn off the phone and learn to develop a healthy relationship to self.
#3- Managing your phone addiction gives you “little wins” to create positive momentum in all of life.
The thought of overcoming your most critical addictions might start by ignoring the next notification you get (probably before you’re done reading this blog).
If you can learn to manage a phone addiction than maybe, just MAYBE, you can create some small wins in your recovery journey that you can bring into all of life.
If you are having trouble with any type of addiction, you should consider admitting yourself into a drug and alcohol treatment center. That, in conjunction with Jesus helping you and giving you strength, can lead to recovery.
Friends, may you take control of your life one notification at a time.
About the Author:
Ryan Moffat is the teaching pastor at Vast Church in Sisters, OR and is currently working on his Masters in Theology at Western Seminary in Portland, OR
Ryan received his BS in Bible and Theology and a minor in counseling from Multnomah University. He has pastored students, families and is passionate about Christ-centered recovery and healing. He’s been married to his beautiful wife Michelle for 13 years and they enjoy raising four crazy, unique and special kids together.
References:
[1]: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/25/living/10-signs-smartphone-addiction-digital-life/
The opinions and views of our guest contributors are shared to provide a broad perspective of addictions. These are not necessarily the views of Addiction Hope, but an effort to offer discussion of various issues by different concerned individuals.
We at Addiction Hope understand that addictions result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. If you or a loved one are suffering from an addiction, please know that there is hope for you, and seek immediate professional help.
Published on April 14, 2017.
Reviewed By: Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC on April 13, 2017
Published on AddictionHope.com