No matter how bad your phone addiction is, the right phone addiction treatment plan can help with your recovery.

Phone addiction, just like other addictions, can impact your behavior as well as financially, socially, physically and emotionally.

Recovering from an addiction can be a major challenge, especially if you have already tried a few treatment plans which failed to work for you. It is easier to give up and lose hope.

Fortunately, all is not lost. You can still recover from your phone addiction and start leading a healthy lifestyle. A 12-step addiction treatment plan idea was developed by the Alcoholics Anonymous to help addicts.

The best thing about these 12 steps is that they can help an addict recover from any addiction, including phone addiction.

Contents

1. Admitting Powerlessness over Addiction

There are many people who wonder how to limit cell phone use. No matter what the addiction is, the first major step towards the recovery process is admitting that you are powerless against your addiction.

Realize that your phone addiction has imprisoned you in a way that it has started affecting all aspects of your life. You must accept the fact that you have lost all control and your willpower to stop has been compromised.

This realization will help you understand the unhealthy extent of your cell phone usage. Understanding this loss of control over your life will be the motivation you need to recover successfully.

2. Believing in a Higher Power

The next step in this smartphone addiction solution plan is to believe in the higher power.

You need to have faith that there is a higher power that will help you in restoring your sanity. That faith is what you will need to go forward with your recovery journey and successfully eliminate your phone addiction.

Believing in a higher power that can help you with your addiction will help you in regaining your lost hope. Phone addicts can easily lose hope of recovery if they have tried to quit but failed several times.

It will make you realize that so many others have been lost in their addictions but managed to get back on track. If the higher power didn’t forsake them, you will also definitely be guided towards the recovery path.

3. Turning to the Higher Power

Instead of constantly pondering over thoughts like “am I addicted to my phone?” you need to take action by seeking help from the higher power.

Everyone has their own version and idea about what or who the higher power is. You need to turn to your version of higher power in order to heal. This shows your willingness to make a change to eliminate addiction.

Typically in this step, the AA program encourages individuals to learn and constantly repeat the serenity prayer to help with their recovery. This prayer is as follows:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”

4. Taking Moral Inventory

This step highlights one of the most effective cell phone addiction solutions – taking inventory of self. This inventory must be fearless, searching, and comprehensive.

Fearless doesn’t mean it should be without fear, instead, it encourages you to push past your fears and honestly identify and accept all your shortcomings.

This step involves writing lists about your past experiences, feelings, thoughts, incidents, mistakes, and other issues that are often difficult for you to face. An honest inventory will help you in facing your fears and going past them.

Maintaining a personal journal is best for this, as well as for the remaining part of your recovery journey. It will help you with introspection and self-reflection and work as a reminder about why you want to eliminate phone addiction.

5. Admitting Mistakes

The next step on how to overcome smartphone addiction is a difficult one. You have to admit whatever mistakes you made as a result of your phone addiction.

You can admit your mistakes, events and personal stories to a person you trust to assist with this step. It is essential that you select the right support to confess your mistakes to. The main idea here is eliminating isolation.

Phone addiction can isolate an individual from their loved ones and surroundings. Therefore, this step encourages them to reach out to a support system to talk about their problems. Admitting your shortcomings to your loved ones won’t be easy.

This makes step 5 a crucial step, which assists in cleansing your soul and eliminating the negativity from your life so you can smoothly move forward in your recovery process.

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6. Allowing the Higher Power to Eliminate Defects

The next step in this phone addiction help is turning to the higher power again and asking for your character defects to be removed.

You can make a list of all your shortcomings, flaws, and bad habits during this step or simply use the list made in step 4. Next, start determining the new character traits you would want to replace those defects.

This step can also include creating positive affirmations that can assist in keeping you motivated in eliminating your phone addiction.

7. Practicing Humility

This next step requires you to practice humility and seek the will of the higher power on how to live your life. You had already exhibited humility when you began researching ideas about what to do about phone addiction.

You simply have to expand that humility throughout this recovery process. This step also works as a means of self-introspection and as a reminder of your powerlessness against the phone addiction.

Remaining humble is an essential part of recovery and strengthens your faith and belief in the higher power.

8. Listing Wrongdoings and Making Amends

This step also involves making lists once again, but focuses on forgiveness. There are various phone addiction symptoms that would have made you cause harm to others. This is the step where you begin making amends.

You can form two lists in this step. One should be about the people you have hurt and should ask forgiveness from. The other should be about the people who have hurt you which might have led to your addiction.

This step is about forgiving and seeking forgiveness. Make sure you are honest when writing down names, especially of individuals who evoke strong emotions in you like fear, anger, guilt, shame and resentment.

9. Reaching Out Directly to Make Amends

This step is possibly the hardest step you would have to take. This is the point when many addicts relapse or take most time since directly asking for forgiveness from the people you have hurt is not an easy task.

It is important that you ensure that seeking forgiveness is not going to cause further harm. Some of your loved ones might be deeply hurt and not ready to interact with you. Reaching out to them might cause harm.

You can also opt for indirect means in complex cases, like writing a letter to them. However, the best means of reconciliation is to directly talk to the people you have hurt because of your phone addiction.

This will be a humbling experience and a drastic step forward in your recovery journey.

10. Seeking Accountability

The first 9 steps help in building the foundation towards a phone addiction free life. This step will enable you to be accountable for your every day actions.

Recovery is an ongoing process, which is why it is important that you continuously monitor your actions, behaviors, words, thoughts, feelings and emotions. Keeping a daily track will prevent you from potential relapse.

There are numerous apps to stop smartphone addiction that can help you in this step. Many enable you to set a time limit on the hours you spend on phone and alert you when that limit is up.

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11. Utilizing Prayers and Meditations to Make a Firm Commitment

By now you have made tremendous progress in addiction recovery. All that remains is to keep a constant check on yourself. Since a phone is a necessity, you might be wondering how to make your phone less addictive.

This step helps you with this by encouraging you to make prayer and meditation a daily part of your life. Enhancing the connection with the higher power through prayers and keeping a clear head through meditation will assist you greatly.

Spend some quiet time and offer gratitude to strengthen your mind, body, soul connection. This will enable you to have a deeper control over your emotions and thoughts, as well as maintain your firm commitment towards an addiction free life.

12. Carrying Out The Message

The final step is where you give back to the ones greatly in need of help. Just like you received help throughout your struggle with phone addiction. You are now at the position to assist others make this recovery.

This step will not only allow you to support others but will also work as a constant reminder from the life you left behind, and why you must continue on this path.

You will share your struggles, testimonies, stories, and tips that helped you through your recovery process in order to spread encouragement and hope to others trying to eliminate their addiction.