Most parents today worry their child spends too much time on social media. While families may joke about screen addictions, social media addictions are real. A form of process addiction, social media addictions can point to underlying mental health concerns and be detrimental to an adolescent’s wellbeing. Luckily, social media addiction rehab programs specialize in helping teens, which can help teens overcome the need to stay engaged in the digital world.
If your teen is struggling with social media use or social media habits are affecting their health, grades, and wellbeing, call Foothills at Red Oak Recovery. Our treatment programs for adolescent boys cater to co-occurring disorders ranging from depression and drug use to excessive gaming and social media dependency. Call 866.300.5275 or visit us online to learn more about the benefits of Foothills.
What Is Social Media Addiction?
Like any addiction, when social media use negatively affects or interferes with a person’s life, it is considered an addiction. Social media addiction is also what’s called a process addiction. As a process addiction, a person repeatedly engages in social media use despite its harm to their life. This harm can come in many forms that don’t always seem obvious to parents. Social media and other process addictions are compulsive. Someone struggling with social media addiction will probably deny they have a problem with social media use. Other signs of social media addiction include:
- Changes in social habits
- Lower grades
- Neglecting friends and family
- Trouble sleeping
- Anxiety or panic attacks
- Constant social media use
- Extreme upset when social media is taken away
Addiction to social media is common. Platforms keep users hooked by offering hits of dopamine and serotonin with likes, shares, and followers. These companies can program algorithms to deliver these boosts often enough to keep people using social media. For many, this stream of happy chemicals affects them similarly to the release of dopamine from drugs or alcohol. This release makes social media highly addictive, although it may seem more benign than drugs or alcohol.
Benefits of Social Media Addiction Rehab
When a person with a process addiction doesn’t use social media, video games, the internet, or other compulsions, they experience withdrawal. During this time, it isn’t easy to detox from social media at home. Creating social media rules can strain already difficult relationships between parents and teens. Treating social media addiction at home does not help teens address co-occurring disorders, peer pressure, and other aspects of a teen’s life that may be addiction’s root causes and triggers. Parents are often not the best candidates for helping a struggling teen.
Professional social media addiction rehab programs can help address underlying causes, triggers, and behaviors that affect a teen’s addiction. They can help both teens and their parents better understand needs, boundaries, and behaviors while improving communication. The programs often use cognitive-behavioral therapy to help teens rewire thought patterns and change their behaviors.
Working with individual, group, and family therapy sessions can help teens implement behavioral changes in every aspect of their lives. Many of these programs also featured alternative therapies that help teens disconnect from their social lives, screens, and anxieties through art, dance, equine, and outdoor therapies.
While many people may joke about social media addiction, it is a serious dependency. If ignored, process addictions can lead to substance abuse, self-harm, and other damaging behavior. It’s always best to seek professional support if you suspect your teen is suffering from a process addiction.
Start Social Media Addiction Rehab at Foothills at Red Oak Recovery
If your teenage son struggles to disconnect from social media, Foothills at Red Oak Recovery can help. Our North Carolina clinic helps teenage boys disconnect from their lives and reconnect with themselves with equine and large animal therapy. We specialize in treating process addictions and other co-occurring disorders. Reach out today at 866.300.5275 to learn more about our social media addiction rehab programs.
