Internet addiction-ways to beat it?

Hey man speaking from experience (I'm doing it right now), find something more productive to do. Im jobless waiting to go back to work. I should be reading. The devil plays with a idle hands.

 

You might start with looking at what kind of site you tend to surf, most of the time people probably don't surf a diverse variety but it might be more video, social media and the like. There are apps that track time use with which apps and sites.

A general thing I also do is just take a break from sitting in front of the computer every 20-30 minutes. I set a timer otherwise I won't do it. I get joint pain if I don't fo it but I still fail to sometimes, so forget about not having the timer.

There are also programs that lock you out for a while to force you to take a break.

 

Thanks for the information. Its beneficial!

 

Things that work for me
1) I deleted facebook (HUGE)
2) lots of exercise (I never workout with my phone)
3) reading
4) keeping my phone in a place where it's not accessible unless I actually need it
5) Got rid of my home desktop (huge draw when I came home); now I have to take out my laptop and plug it in etc if I want to get on the internet in my downtime
6) Minimizing alone time (also huge)
I'm liking the tech backlash! Fuck the lords of silicon valley!

 

Try reading some self help books...lots of good ones on success...just Google it. The internet's also a good thing if your looking for valuable information. Also some good YouTube videos, i try to watch one per day....some good mentors are, Tony Robbins, Grant Cardone, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, Alan watts, Ian Lopez. Ian Lopez also has a huge collection of books ( him and most self made rich people swear by reading to become successful).

 

How much is too much or how much is when it starts hindering our dopamine receptors for reboot?

 

This has not been studied in a rigorous manner to know for sure (there are lots of methodological issues with “brain on porn” neuroimaging studies, incidentally). You would need to have PET studies and look at D2 receptor binding. There is interest among the people who study process addictions, and problematic internet use is becoming enough of a public health issue that the NIH might fund such studies. Also, the tech giants could fund their own “negative” studies.

Bottom line: this question is interesting but academic. For me i just decided that enough was enough so I quit!

 

Thanks alot

 

I would say it's not a matter of how much at all, but whether someone responds to it by a serious irresistible craving where they HAVE to have more. Some people might get there with a little use while another might not feel that way because they see it as related to work instead of relaxation.

 

Like binge watching shows because we want to see the next episode in the series because it’s so good. Or we click around videos on YouTube watching clips after clips just to see new videos because it’s so fun and it doesn’t get old. So let’s say we are in this “mode” of using the internet, the bad feeling of wanting more and more, what would you say is too much and would doing this slow down reboot?

 

I don’t know of any studies but internet addiction is a thing right? Is it safe to say that if one activity desentisize dopamine receptors (pmo), do they shut down the same receptors that work when we act upon other activities(internet, computer, phones etc)? Basically I’m asking, do all dopamine receptors get desensitized when there is an addiction, all across the board. If that’s the case, then does any activities that we have a minor addiction in or indulge a little too much in, will that dampen recovery for these receptors?

 

• Timers
• Self-set limits (only these specific pages)
• Pocket/instapaper types apps for only reading and not getting distracted or click-baited
• Filters
• Having a specific purpose while online (research, banking, recovery) No purpose men’s no internet.

 

So this is kind of my professional area, but I'll try to be as clear as possible. The story of addiction is far more complex than just up/downregulation of striatal (or cortical) D2 receptors. Much of this PET work that was done in the 1980s/early 1990s was fundamental but not completely explanatory. The fact is brain behavior relationnships are not localized to a single neurotransmitter system or a single brain region. Systems neuroscience implicates a network organizational approach, the fundamentals of which we are just beginning to understand and refine the methodology for rigorous study.
There is some literature on internet addiction but it's validity as a "natural kind" is still questionable.

The bottom line is if you think you spend too much time on the internet or jacking off (I know I did) and it's interfering in your life (I know it was for me) then you have to ask yourself what are you going to do about it? Who cares if it's validated as an addiction? More important is the actions you are going to take (for me deleting facebook, going on nofap when I get urges etc) so I don't do it and can make improvements in my life.

 

Finding more productive activities is the way to beat it.

 

But I ain’t got much to do... I get bored so easily and I can literally feel my brain dying of boredom. I do do some healthy habits. It’s just when weekends come, I get so burnt out from work for the weekday, I just let loose and enjoy. Maybe a little too much, buts it’s 2/7 days? Can’t be too bad right?

With my current condition aside, do you think indulging in these stuff will affect reboot? You say that an addiction isn’t localized by any one area of the brain and many neurotransmitter are involved. So if we cease the addicting act while still using phones, computers and watching shows etc, will it cross over to some of the areas that are affected by the addiction? Or is that a question that is unable to be answered because of current information of neurology and stuff.

So is nofap enough? Is pmo the reason?? What should we do brother??

 

Well again how would you measure too much? To answer the second question first I think it would slow down reboot to some extent. And instead of asking how much I'd say the qualifier might be not being able to stop. You might always rationalize oh I can watch one more. If your original intent is to watch one episode or something and you ALWAYS end up watching not two or three but a whole season, and you stop only because they don't stream the next season - that's more telling than anything. Besides, who keeps track of how many? It's not like someone binge watching are keeping numbers with it.

I think instead of measuring by how much time and stuff, we want to know that feeling when we're getting hooked - that's like an early warning which we can notice if we train ourselves to pay attention.

I think a practical tip is to vary the kind of activity we do. Few people would cut out TV shows entirely, but if that's all you do even if you change up the shows, it's probably a good idea to look into other things. During the course of the day we could have not just watched videos but listened to music, read, visited friends etc. instead of just doing one activity. (although with videos it's probably good to note you can multi-task binge by overeating and overwatching at the same time and maybe also get drunk - it's sort of an American tradition after all)

So it's like the amount of one activity we do compulsively is probably inversely proportional to the number of TYPES of activity we do. (with the exception of eating while watching kind of thing - besides that's 2-3)

 

You know what though, I think being addicted to social media for so long gave me a great boost in the beginning because all I had to do is replace Facebook with Nofap. If you're willing to make NF as your sole replacement even if you're reading stuff in Off Topic forum it's probably a little related to rebooting. I think that has a lot to do with being able to always keep it in my mind on some level. When I'm feeling the urge I pretty much always have rebooting in the back of my mind because both in the current streak and when I've been on here in the past I was so absorbed in the forum it was really plugged into my mind. And now I can go a couple days without the forum and still be okay.

BTW It's not that unreasonable because there ARE people making other kinds of posts but most of it just ties back to rebooting. You can watch videos but maybe just make it a rule to watch ones people post here, even if it's just casual socializing it ties you back to this community - kind of do that a while. I didn't plan it as a strategy but I was so used to being on FB, being so plugged in it was like plugging in to an alternative that supports rebooting, it's only in retrospect I realize that's what I did.