Escape, entertainment, distraction, soothing, sleep aid…that damn phone!

My teenagers are always on their phones but my folks with bipolar are ALWAYS and a day on their phones. The phone interrupts true conversation and intimacy. The phone is used as an escape from their lives. The phone distracts their busy minds with useless noise.

The phone is their pacifer.

The phone can bring some terrible stuff into the bipolar fold. Violent videos, gaming, porn, the opportunities to cheat, avoidance of responsibilities, online gambling. Excess and destruction all around. Add in mania and you have a recipe for disaster.

How do we get them off their phones? They need to be called out and engaged. They need to know that the phone does not solve any problems or cure them, it is merely a distraction from the truth of their lives. There is no panacea to feel better. It takes treatment, medication, therapy, good supports and time to form better coping patterns and mechanisms.

When I look at those phones, I see pain. I see anguish, I see isolation.

I truly hate the damn phones!