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American society of addiction medicine (ASAM) defines addiction as a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. Social media addictions are no different from any other addictions from drugs to pornography. It might actually be the worst kind of addiction since it’s free and plentiful.

Once a person experiences dopamine from social media, the brain will seek it out again and it will repeat until it becomes a habit. What’s worse is that social media is provided with just a touch of our fingers, so it is even easier to rewire our brain to constantly seek out immediate gratification. Once your brain structure is altered, a person will seek out the activity or product that triggered the dopamine discharge constantly leading to dopamine imbalance.

Per https://www.healthdirect.gov/, dopamine imbalance can cause numerous things.

• muscle cramps, spasms or stiffness
• digestion problems, such as constipation or reflux
• pneumonia
• trouble sleeping
• moving or speaking more slowly than usual
• feeling tired and unmotivated, or sad and lacking hope
• having low libido (sex drive)
• hallucinations

Immediate gratification based addiction like social media or pornography may be the worst kind of addiction because it kills your motivation. This will ultimately lead to long term failure of one’s life, because one will be rewired to seek out low value instant gratification and avoid meaningful work that leads to long term and more meaningful goals. This becomes habitual and one will be wired to seek out dopamine as soon as they go through anything stressful. Once this happens, it will become difficult to regulate things like emotions and one will suffer from mood dysfunctions leading to long term issues.

It may be challenging, but it is possible with some effort and commitment to break the addiction. Here are some steps you can take to quit your social media addiction:

1. Remove social media: I personally recommend removing them completely and moving on. Limiting yourself is like limiting amount of drugs to a drug addict. If it’s too hard, you can try limiting yourself in the beginning until you are able to completely remove it from your life.
2. Replace social media with other activities (Find hobbies): Create a schedule for yourself that includes time for work, exercise, hobbies, and other activities. Most people get addicted to social media because they are bored and don’t have meaningful hobbies or anything they enjoy. Try out numerous activities if you don’t have any specific hobby you like.
3. Seek support: Consider joining a support group or seeing a therapist who can help you overcome your addiction. Best bet is to find someone else in the same situation as you are currently at. Your friends and family may not be addicted nor do they probably care about quitting.

Quitting social media addiction or any addiction takes time and effort. It may be a painful process but you should stick with it and try to celebrate small victories along the way. With consistent effort and dedication, you can break free and live a more fulfilling life.