I was addicted to my phone for years. Now I only check it on Mondays, and my life is completely different.

• Tom McHenry started gaming at six, and it triggered his addiction to video games and social media.
• He would compulsively "doom scroll" on his smartphone, isolating himself from others.
• McHenry followed 12-step programs to break free of the habit, helped by fitness and cold plunges.

This story is based on an interview with Tom McHenry, 36, a mental health worker from Southeast Michigan. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I started playing Game Boy when I was 6. I loved it. It was awesome. Then, in my teenage years, I graduated to computers and played games like World of Warcraft.

Smartphones became mainstream in my 20s, and I immediately jumped on them. I was an electrical engineer at the time, and I would sneak to the bathroom to play video games.

Social media was my dopamine fix

Things progressed to me having my work screen open and, in the corner, Facebook or YouTube. I kept up appearances, but my attention was always on games and social media.

I got a dissociative effect, which helped me self-soothe and self-regulate. And it spiraled out of control from there, becoming my dopamine fix.

At least I recognized I had a problem. I was naturally isolating myself, and technology was my best friend. I would commit to being off Facebook for a month, before relapsing or moving to a different platform.

I enjoyed the doomscrolling. It didn't matter if it was a friend or not; I liked seeing people write stuff. I would go to Reddit and read 500 comments under a post. It was an endless desire for more.

My mom would say, "It's time for dinner." I wouldn't respond for an hour. I would tell myself, "Once I finish this up, I'll come." I'd stay up until 4 a.m.

Appreciating nature helped

It started to become miserable, and I was desperate to break the addiction. It was detrimental to my life, and I committed myself to stopping. Well, I tried to.

I quit my job in 2019 and did the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Being off screens and in nature helped, but I'd fall into old habits. Once I was done with the hike, I'd get on my phone in the car.

The next few years were a constant battle as I went in and out of sobriety. Luckily, I had the support of my family. At one point, I lived in my brother's basement because he was trying to help however he could.

I found out about two 12-step programs in the spring of 2025: Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous (ITAA) and Media Addicts Anonymous.

I started putting down my phone

It was the breakthrough I needed. I would attend recovery meetings with people in the same situation. I could talk to them about being addicted to YouTube, for example, and they understood exactly what I was saying.

The connection broke the shame and isolation. I started putting down my phone, coming back to real life, and socializing again.

My sober date is 6/7/25, so I'm celebrating 17 months of not checking my phone seven days a week. I will now only look at it for an hour or two on Mondays.

I'll respond to text messages or calls I've gotten over the week. I still need my phone to get paid for my current job in mental health, and there's two-factor authentication for certain things like my taxes.

On Mondays, I'll write a list of things I need to do and work through it. It usually ends up being a busy day for me, but I've learned to only use my phone for essentials.

Still, I haven't completely turned my back on technology. I check my email on my laptop daily and use it to play video games with my friends strictly once a week.

I like to cold plunge

The other factors in my recovery are nature, meditation, pickleball, and general fitness. I can spend hours at my Life Time gym every day, not necessarily working out but walking around and talking to other people.

Best of all, I do a regular cold plunge. It's one of the ways I center myself spiritually. If I ever get a little head crazy, I'll jump into the water or dunk my face. It's a simple thing that really works.

It's hard to explain how free I feel now. When I think about my everyday life, I'm grateful that I'm healthy and my mind is clear.

I'm enthusiastic again. It used to be that I was at war or something comparable. Now I'm no longer at war. I'm at peace.