{"id":600,"date":"2011-09-05T11:19:30","date_gmt":"2011-09-05T15:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thecelebritytherapist\/?p=600"},"modified":"2011-09-05T12:25:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-05T16:25:00","slug":"texting-addiction-r-u-jokg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thecelebritytherapist\/2011\/09\/texting-addiction-r-u-jokg.html","title":{"rendered":"Texting Addiction: R U JOKG?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Texting has become a way of life for most people from adults
\nthrough to the young teens that own a cell phone.\u00a0 It is a simple and effective
\nway to share information in very short, concise messages that saves the need
\nfor those sometimes time consuming personal phone calls. The idea behind
\ntexting is wonderful, but there may be a darker side to this communication
\nmethod for adults and teens alike. Texting can become an addiction, with some
\npeople reporting that they feel anxious, depressed or isolated if they are not
\nable to send or receive texts on a regular basis.\u00a0 This became quite obvious yesterday while watching my 13 year old neice text away with her girlfriend right there next to her.\u00a0 No, they weren’t texting to each other (at least I don’t think so), but they were not communicating with one another either; instead they were communicating with their other friends through texting.\u00a0 In my day, that would of meant having a friend over, only to ignore her, by being on the phone with someone else.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that the average teen sends just under 3400
\ntexts per month. This equates roughly to 100 or so texts a day or about 10
\ntexts an hour for the time that kids are actually awake. Take out class time,
\neating and other non-text compatible activities and you are probably looking at
\ncloser to 20 texts per hour or one text every 3 minutes. \u00a0Adults tend to text at lower amounts, but
\nstill into the thousands of texts per month when it reaches the level of
\naddiction.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly there is science behind the increasing
\nnumber of people that are finding that text messaging has become an addiction.
\nResearchers studying the effects of texting have found that receiving messages actually
\nchanges the level of dopamine, which is a naturally occurring mood enhancing chemical
\nin the brain. This is the same chemical that linked to developing other types
\nof addictions, including drug addictions. The brain craves the feelings of
\npleasure that the flood of dopamine produces so each text is like a bit of
\ninstant gratification with both physiological and psychological reinforcement.<\/p>\n

All texting is not addictive. However, when texting becomes
\nthe major focus for a person; they are stressed when they cannot text, or they
\nchoose texting over personal interactions there is a problem. Addressing this
\nbehavior as an addiction instead of as a bad habit gives the significance to
\nthe addiction that it deserves. Treating a texting addiction is not as simple
\nas just trying to cut down, it requires addiction recovery, behavior changes
\nand a healthy alternative to produce those feel good chemicals in the brain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texting has become a way of life for most people from adults through to the young teens that own a cell phone.\u00a0 It is a simple and effective way to share information in very short, concise messages that saves the need for those sometimes time consuming personal phone calls. The idea behind texting is wonderful,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":402,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTexting Addiction: R U JOKG? - The Celebrity Therapist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thecelebritytherapist\/2011\/09\/texting-addiction-r-u-jokg.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texting Addiction: R U JOKG? - The Celebrity Therapist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Texting has become a way of life for most people from adults through to the young teens that own a cell phone.\u00a0 It is a simple and effective way to share information in very short, concise messages that saves the need for those sometimes time consuming personal phone calls. The idea behind texting is wonderful,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thecelebritytherapist\/2011\/09\/texting-addiction-r-u-jokg.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Celebrity Therapist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-05T15:19:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-09-05T16:25:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thecelebritytherapist\/files\/2011\/09\/texting-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sherry Gaba\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Texting Addiction: R U JOKG? - The Celebrity Therapist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thecelebritytherapist\/2011\/09\/texting-addiction-r-u-jokg.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Texting Addiction: R U JOKG? - The Celebrity Therapist","og_description":"Texting has become a way of life for most people from adults through to the young teens that own a cell phone.\u00a0 It is a simple and effective way to share information in very short, concise messages that saves the need for those sometimes time consuming personal phone calls. 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