The Phone Addiction Workbook: How to Identify Smartphone Dependency, Stop Compulsive Behavior and Develop a Healthy Relationship with Your Devices

by Hilda Burke

Overview

Stop scrolling and start living! Build healthier relationships between you, your smartphone and all your devices, including tips to reduce social media obsession, notification anxiety and other unhealthy habits.

Your smartphone is a powerful device that has fundamentally changed your life—no doubt improving it in many ways. And while you don’t need to give up your smartphone completely, if your day to day is filled with endless, anxiety-inducing checking, swiping and liking, then you need this helpful, step-by-step workbook to take back control of your life.

Phone addiction is similar to gambling addiction and substance abuse. Its consequences include stress, depression, insomnia, intimacy issues and more. Written by an experienced psychotherapist, couples therapist and former telecommunications industry insider, The Phone Addiction Workbook’s program offers the blueprint for understanding addictive behavior and how it controls you. Weekly charts, practical tips and interactive activities help you stop unhealthy behavior and make lasting change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612439037
Publisher:	Ulysses Press
Publication date:	06/04/2019
Edition description:	Workbook
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Hilda Burke is an integrated psychotherapist, couples counsellor and life coach. She also holds the position of guest lecturer at the London College of Fashion, Universityof the Arts, London and is a volunteer counsellor at Wormwood Scrubs prison. Hilda trained as a transpersonal psychotherapist at CCPE, London and holds a post-graduate certificate in dream work and couples counselling from the same institution. Hilda practices from her consulting room in West London, occasionally accompanied by the resident cat, or her dog, Madra. Before qualifying as a psychotherapist, Hilda worked in PR, promoting many technology and telecoms companies. She also trained as an actor.

Hilda’s aim in working with clients is to help clear the obstacles to enable them to be able to listen to themselves, to be true to themselves and to become fully authentic. She believes the ultimate goal of therapy is to facilitate clients to become their own therapist. Hilda is regularly called upon to comment on issues relating to well-being, relationships and the challenges of modern life in the media and has been quoted in The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Financial Times, Forbes, The Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, Psychologies, Women’s Health and interviewed on the BBC, ITV and London Live. In addition, she has contributed to three books: Lonely Planet’s 100 Ways to Live Well and the best selling The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober and The Unexpected Joy of Being Single. She was a spokesperson for National Unplugged Day in 2016 and 2017.

She can be found online at @hbtherapist or hildaburke.co.uk.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Can We Really Become Addicted to Our Phones? 2

A Bit about Me 3

Mission of This Book 5

How to Use This Book 5

Start Tracking Actual Usage 6

Chapter 1 Mobile for Good: Positive Ways That Smartphone Technology Has Changed the World 8

Innovation 9

Raising Consciousness 10

Reaching Out for Support 11

Bringing People Closer 11

Net Neutrality 12

Exercises 13

Chapter 2 Why Are We So Hooked On Our Phones? 19

How Addicted Are You? 21

Why Do We Become Addicted? 23

Neuroplasticity and Your Habits 26

Breaking Patterns 26

Wait Training 27

What Can We Learn from Cocaine-Addicted Lab Rats? 28

Exercises 30

Chapter 3 The Corrosive Power of Being Always Available 34

Always Working but Not Always Productive 35

Debunking Work Myths 36

Placing Our Relationships On Hold 38

When It Starts to Hit Home 40

Exercises 41

Chapter 4 Smarter Phones, Dumber Users: How Your Phone Might Be Changing the Way You Think 48

Four Smart Reasons to Switch Off Your Phone 50

Mind Wandering 57

On Meditation 59

Exercises 61

Chapter 5 Tackling Boredom and Emotional Discomfort 69

Boredom and Addiction 71

Suppressed Emotions and Addiction 75

Exercises 79

Chapter 6 Procrastination: Why We Really Put Stuff Off! 87

1 Distractibility 88

2 Time to Complete 89

3 Self-Confidence 89

4 Task Value 90

Sneaking Up on Procrastination 93

The Snowball Effect 94

But Remember to Love Thy Procrastinating Self 95

Exercises 97

Chapter 7 On Contentment 104

Healthy Body, Healthy Mind 105

No Comparison 108

Be the Change You Want to See 110

Know Thyself 112

Unlock Your Cage 114

Exercises 116

Conclusion 125

Appendix 128

Recommended Reading and Resources 135

Acknowledgments 137

About the Author 138

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Hilda Burke is my favorite psychological expert because she is whip-smart, an excellent writer and she has an uncanny grasp of how to dismantle our behaviors and rebuild them into new ones. Everyone needs to put down their phones and pick up this book instead."
—Catherine Gray, bestselling author of The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober

“This is an entertaining, well-researched and informative read, full of practical tips and resources on how to improve your quality of life by reducing your dependence on digital devices."
—Dr. Áine Kelly, Neuroscientist Associate Professor in Physiology, Trinity College Dublin and President of Neuroscience Ireland

Hilda Burke’s book is an intelligent, clear-eyed look at how the digital world has changed communication, relationships, work and more. While acknowledging the many advantages of smartphones, she also illustrates just how fractured, unfocused and anxious they have rendered many of us, including her therapy clients whose stories of insomnia, depression and fear of the future clearly illustrate the problems. One of the best things about it is the workbook element: itemized lists for users to tot up daily usage on texts, Instagram, Facebook, even dating sites or porn. It’s not a call to crush your iPhone, but a wake-up alarm to realizing how you use it.
—Louise Chunn, founder of welldoing.org and editor of Planet Mindful

"The Phone Addiction Workbook by Hilda Burke is a no-nonsense guide to help you face up to your smartphone use and offers advice on how to break a potential problem."
—Natasha Harding, journalist, The Sun

"Great reading and depth to this workbook."
—Irene Feighan, Feelgood editor, The Irish Examiner

"This book is a game-changing read! It's practical, efficient, and actually helps you to realize how much time you spend on your phone (*and what to do about it!)."
— Goodzing's "Book of the Week" (June 26, 2019)

Editorial Reviews

The Phone Addiction Workbook by Hilda Burke is a no-nonsense guide to help you face up to your smartphone use and offers advice on how to break a potential problem.

Natasha Harding

"Like most of us, I’ve found myself glued to the screen even more than usual the past year. Partly to stay in touch with friends and family, sure, but partly to do some very unhealthy dooms crolling. I’ve had a look at my screentime reports, and they are not pretty. If you find yourself in a similar situation and want to do something about it, The Phone Addiction Workbook is a good place to start. Full of practical tips, activities, and weekly charts, it helps change your smartphone behavior, hopefully leading to a less doom scrolling-filled life."

Anouk Van Rossum

"This book is a game-changing read! It's practical, efficient, and actually helps you to realize how much time you spend on your phone (*and what to do about it!)."

Goodzing's "Book of the Week" (June 26

Hilda Burke’s book is an intelligent, clear-eyed look at how the digital world has changed communication, relationships, work and more. While acknowledging the many advantages of smartphones, she also illustrates just how fractured, unfocused and anxious they have rendered many of us, including her therapy clients whose stories of insomnia, depression and fear of the future clearly illustrate the problems. One of the best things about it is the workbook element: itemized lists for users to tot up daily usage on texts, Instagram, Facebook, even dating sites or porn. It’s not a call to crush your iPhone, but a wake-up alarm to realizing how you use it.

Louise Chunn

Great reading and depth to this workbook.

Irene Feighan

"Hilda Burke is my favorite psychological expert because she is whip-smart, an excellent writer and she has an uncanny grasp of how to dismantle our behaviors and rebuild them into new ones. Everyone needs to put down their phones and pick up this book instead."

Catherine Gray

This is an entertaining, well-researched and informative read, full of practical tips and resources on how to improve your quality of life by reducing your dependence on digital devices."

Dr. Áine Kelly

This is an entertaining, well-researched and informative read, full of practical tips and resources on how to improve your quality of life by reducing your dependence on digital devices."

Dr. Áine Kelly