Best Option for Cell Phone Addiction Treatment
If you are looking for a residential program for cell phone addiction treatment, you’ve found the best option available. At Summerland Camps, we offer adolescents and teens a total immersion experience where they can “reset” their relationship with technology including cell phones, internet gaming, and other electronic devices. Campers learn to develop new interests and communicate and socialize without their cell phone device as they progress through our clinical phase system.
The best way to approach cell phone addiction treatment is a coaching approach, not an authoritarian approach. We help our campers establish long-term goals they want to work on. Campers then break down their desired goals such as graduating college or developing a skill into daily tasks.
Behavioral Coaches help the camper organize and schedule their time, and campers soon learn that they must choose whether the immediate reward of the cell phone or the long-term reward of achieving their life goal is going to take precedence in their life. So far, we’ve never had a camper choose their cell phone over working on a long-term goal.
Percent of Day College Women Spend on Smartphones (Average)
Science Daily reports female college students spend 62% of waking hours on smartphones, and males spend 50% of waking hours.
Camper learn how to balance their time with electronics and other life pursuits.
Re-set Opportunity
After a reset at camp, campers are given back their electronics and instructions on how to set them up in a way that will enable them to work on their long-term goals without the constant distraction of social media, gaming, and other online distractions. Cell phone addiction treatment also involves the parents as they need to enter into a behavioral contract with the teen to ensure compliance.
Falling off track is part of the process. We teach our campers as part of the cell phone addiction treatment process how to get back on track if they binge one day on cell phone usage. Because it is unrealistic to expect a young person to completely go without their cell phone or other screen-based technology, we believe a behavioral coaching process works best for cell phone addiction treatment. A 12-step model where a teen swears off cell phone usage is unrealistic in modern society.
Cell Phone Addiction Treatment / Smart Phone Addiction Treatment Versus “Habit”
‘Cell Phone Addiction Treatment’ is what this page is all about, but let’s clarify the terminology here. Yes, the DSM-V (the guide used by therapists and mental health professionals to diagnose) has proposed a new classification that is to be examined for consideration of a full-fledged diagnosis: Internet Gaming Disorder.
In basic terms, this means that Internet Gaming Disorder not an “official” disorder in the DSM, but one on which the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is requesting additional research. The APA in the future may or may not decide to make the disorder “official” in future editions.
We, however, prefer to discuss cell phone addiction treatment in terms of a “habit” instead of an “addiction.” Addiction is overpowering, and like the word “try” it’s a built-in excuse for failure. “Habit” is something that is learned and can be unlearned. Calling excessive cell phone usage a “habit” gives the power back to the teen, and they are empowered (along with developing the right mentality and a reset experience) to learn to live in balance with their cell phone device.
Where our Campers Come From
The Summerland Program offers sessions year-round at our summer camp and adventure-based trips, in addition to home bases options. While we take campers from all across the U.S., at Summerland Camps we have served many families from California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan to name a few.