A parent shares the painful reality of their teen’s phone addiction to Snapchat & TikTok—and the slow journey to recovery.
My daughter has been addicted to her phone since we first gave it to her at age 12. She is now 16. I have few regrets in life. Giving her that phone too soon, because all her friends already had one, is the deepest regret I carry.
With her increased phone use, I have watched progressive decline in my child’s ability to regulate her emotions. When we take the phone away, like an addict hooked on a drug, she immediately goes into withdrawal. Just the thought of not having her phone is angering to her and she gets restless and verbally aggressive. Lately, we’ve noticed her eating more sweets & candy – my assumption is she tries to find a dopamine hit through the sugar when she doesn’t have use of her phone. Her distress tolerance skills are limited.
She is now working in therapy to gain distress tolerance skills and develop the ability to self-assess around her phone use. We see an improvement, but it is slow.
Addiction runs in our family.
My guess is, had we not intervened, we would have lost her to screen time entirely.
Our daughter is a 3 sport athlete, an honor roll student, has friends, and yet is deeply addicted to Snapchat and Tik Tok. If left to her own devices (pun intended) she would be on her phone 12 hours straight a day.
What would I do differently given the chance? No phone until at least 14 . And absolutely no Snapchat or TikTok.
Hours of her life have been consumed by these apps. Snapchat has caused anxiety, rupture in her friendships, encouraged attention seeking behavior on screen and overall been problematic.
Its algorithm mimics the allure of the slot machines in a casino. Sadly, this is how this young generation communicates and feels connected. It’s not going away.
With vigilance and professional guidance, we are making progress. One day at a time.
Nan