Tips for Breaking Internet Addiction

Internet addiction is the excessive use of computer or internet that interferes with daily life. This type of addiction is not identified as a psychological disorder. Many people turn to the Internet in order to protect themselves from unpleasant feelings such as stress, loneliness, depression, and anxiety. Teenagers are most likely to get addicted to Internet. Symptoms of the internet addiction includes increase in the amounts of time spent on computer and internet activities, neglecting friends and family, feeling restless, being dishonest with others, changes in sleep patterns and so on. Physical symptoms includes weight gain or loss, backaches, headaches and carpal tunnel syndrome.

Here are some tips which are useful in breaking the Internet addiction:

• First thing is to record how much time you spend online each day for one or two weeks. It is the best measure to control Internet addiction because a person can usually overcome an addition for a day or two, but not 2 weeks.
• Set quantifying goals for yourself for using the Internet and your goals need to be what you actually want.
• Do the things in which you are interested like housework, exercise, studying, or paperwork instead of using the Internet.
• One way to break internet addiction is to set a timer, the moment you sit down on Internet. Set it for 15 minutes less than your goal and after the completion of the time do the work you are most interested in.
• Instead of alarm clock use your natural body cues to break internet addiction and if your back starting to stiffen, get up and go do something physical. Also use hunger cue to take a break instead of doing dinner at the computer desk.
• If you have reasons to spend less time on the Internet it will be very useful for breaking the Internet addiction.

As Internet addiction has lots of negative effects on the performance of teenagers, it should be identified early and should be avoided.