Quick takeaway

Social media addiction isn’t yet a formal diagnosis, but compulsive scrolling follows the same pattern as other behavioural addictions: loss of control, carrying on despite the harm, and restlessness when you can’t check your phone. The clearest warning signs are losing hours without meaning to, reaching for your phone to escape difficult feelings, repeated failed attempts to cut down, and your sleep, work or relationships starting to suffer. I’m Peter J Davies of Addiction Care, and I offer confidential one-to-one therapy in Guildford and online.

You pick up your phone to answer one message, and when you next look at the clock forty minutes have gone. You’ve deleted the app, reinstalled it a few days later, and still find yourself scrolling in bed long after you meant to be asleep.

I’m Peter J Davies, and I’ve worked as an addiction specialist in Guildford for more than 20 years. Compulsive scrolling follows patterns I recognise from the behavioural addictions I treat. Here I’ll explain what the evidence says, the signs I look for, and how one-to-one therapy can help you take back your time.

Does social media addiction exist?

Yes, in the way that matters for you, although it isn’t listed as a separate condition. Neither the World Health Organization’s ICD-11 nor the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5-TR includes “social media addiction” as a formal diagnosis. ICD-11 does recognise gaming disorder and gambling disorder, both driven by the same cycle of anticipation, unpredictable reward and relief.

In my 21 years of experience I’ve seen the pattern, whatever label it carries: a behaviour you can’t control, that continues despite the harm, and that you turn to when feelings become uncomfortable. Each like or new video is a small, unpredictable reward, and most feeds have no natural end point, which makes stopping hard.

How much time on social media is too much?

There’s no number that marks the line. Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report found UK adults now spend an average of four and a half hours online a day, most of it on a smartphone, so heavy use is common. What matters more is what the scrolling does for you and what it costs you.

This isn’t confined to young people. The BBC recently spoke to adults in their sixties who struggle to put their phones down, citing a 2026 YouGov poll showing that more than half of over-55s use social media at least once a week. If you’re a parent or grandparent, you may recognise the habit in yourself as much as in the younger people around you.

Is my phone use a behavioural addiction?

It may be if your use has become compulsive rather than chosen. These are the signs I look for when someone tells me they’re worried about their phone:

• Regularly spending far longer scrolling than you intended
• Checking social media first thing in the morning, last thing at night, or when you wake in the night
• Reaching for your phone when you feel anxious, lonely, bored or low
• Feeling irritable or restless when you can’t check it
• Trying to cut down and slipping back within days
• Playing down how much time you spend online to the people around you
• Neglecting sleep, work, or the people in the room with you
• Feeling worse about yourself after scrolling, and scrolling anyway

One or two of these might describe a habit worth adjusting. Several together, persisting despite your efforts to stop, describe a compulsive pattern similar to the internet and computer game addictions I treat, and it rarely responds to willpower alone.

Steps you can try on your own

Cutting down does help. A 2018 University of Pennsylvania study found that limiting social media to about 30 minutes a day for three weeks led to significant reductions in loneliness and depression. These are practical places to start:

• Turn off notifications for every social media app
• Charge your phone outside the bedroom overnight
• Set daily limits in your phone’s screentime settings, and notice how often you override them
• Remove the app you use most for a fortnight, logging in only from a computer
• Before you open an app, name what you’re looking for: a message, a distraction, or company

If these changes don’t hold, the scrolling is probably doing an emotional job, such as numbing stress or filling loneliness, and that needs attention in its own right.

Finding one-to-one therapy for social media addiction in Guildford

When self-help hasn’t worked, talking to someone who understands compulsive behaviour is the next step.

Support	What it offers	How to access
Addiction Care, Guildford	Confidential one-to-one therapy with a specialist addiction counsellor, face to face in Surrey	Call 01483 533808
Addiction Care Family Programme	Support for partners, parents and adult children worried about a loved one	Call 01483 533808
Your GP	Support for related anxiety, low mood or sleep problems, and NHS referrals	Book an appointment

I run Addiction Care from central Guildford. We begin with a confidential assessment: an honest conversation about how you use your phone, what it gives you, and what it’s taking away. From there we work one-to-one on the feelings underneath the habit and on boundaries you can keep.

If it’s someone else’s scrolling that worries you, my Family Programme can help, and a script for talking to a loved one gives you a way to open the conversation calmly.

Taking the first step

Recognising that scrolling has taken over is the hardest part, and you’ve already started that acknowledgement by reading this far. With the right support, you can use your phone on your own terms again and give that time back to the people and things you care about.

If you would like to talk, either for yourself or for a loved one, please call 01483 533808 or get in touch online to book a confidential assessment so we can talk it through.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to give up social media completely to recover?

Not always. For many people the aim is intentional use with clear boundaries, although some find that leaving one or two platforms entirely works better. We agree the right approach for you in therapy.

Can older adults become addicted to social media?

Yes. Compulsive scrolling can develop at any age, and adults in their fifties and sixties describe the same pull as younger users. The signs and the treatment are the same whatever your age.

Where can I find one-to-one therapy for phone addiction in Surrey?

At Addiction Care I offer face-to-face, one-to-one therapy for social media and phone addiction from consulting rooms in central Guildford (GU1 4PB), covering Surrey and the surrounding area. Call 01483 533808 to arrange a confidential assessment.

Quick takeaway

Being sober curious means looking honestly at the part alcohol plays in your life without having decided to give it up for good. A trial break of a few weeks or a month is the clearest test available to you: people who aren’t dependent usually find it unremarkable, while people who are dependent find it much harder than they expected. If you can’t keep to the break, feel physically unwell on the days you don’t drink, or hide how much you get through, that points to something that should be explored. I’m Peter J Davies of Addiction Care, and I help people on this path.

The idea of being sober curious rarely appears in a dramatic way. Perhaps you’ve begun to notice the presence of alcohol in your life a bit more. You might not even be consuming more, but you might feel that it’s a bit too central for your liking. Nobody has said anything, and you wouldn’t call it a problem, though you’d like to know what a few weeks without it might feel like.

I’m Peter J Davies, and I’ve worked as an addiction specialist in Guildford for more than 20 years. Plenty of the people who contact me begin exactly here, curious rather than in crisis. Below I’ll explain what sober curious means, the signs that a break is worth taking, how to go about one, and what to do if it turns out harder than you expected.

What does sober curious mean?

Sober curious describes choosing to examine your drinking rather than carrying on out of habit. The writer Ruby Warrington gave the idea its name in her 2018 book Sober Curious, and campaigns like Dry January have made the experiment an ordinary thing to try. It asks nothing of you in the way of labels, diagnoses or lifelong promises. Day to day, it looks like one of these:

• Taking a set period off alcohol, then noticing how you feel
• Drinking on fewer occasions, or only when you’ve decided in advance to
• Saying no to a drink without offering an explanation
• Paying attention to what alcohol actually does for you, rather than what you assume it does

You’d be in more company than you might think. In the Office for National Statistics’ last survey of adult drinking habits in Great Britain, 20.4% of adults said they don’t drink at all.

Signs it might be time to take a break from alcohol

Curiosity rarely arrives out of nowhere. Something has usually prompted it, and it helps to name what that might be for you. You might recognise a few of these:

• Drinking more than you meant to on most occasions
• Thinking about your first drink of the evening well before you pour it
• Using alcohol to manage stress, sleep or low mood
• Feeling uneasy about an evening out where there won’t be alcohol
• Trying to cut down before and not keeping it up
• Someone close to you mentioning your drinking, even as a joke

None of these on its own confirms a problem with alcohol. Several together, over months, describe a relationship that’s worth testing. A break will tell you more in a fortnight than the list will.

How do I cut down my drinking?

Most people who try to drink less do it with a vague plan of good intentions, which gives them nothing to hold onto by Friday. A break works better when you give it a shape.

1. Choose a length and write it down. Two weeks is enough to notice something; a month gives a fuller picture
2. Decide what you’ll drink instead, and have it in the house before day one
3. Prepare the sentence you’ll use when a drink is offered. “Not tonight, thanks” needs no follow-up
4. Keep to the UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidance if you do decide to drink: no more than 14 units a week, spread across three or more days
5. Tell one person, so the plan exists outside your own head
6. Note down what changes, day by day, rather than trusting yourself to remember

The differences tend to show up quickly. Among people who completed Dry January in research by Dr Richard de Visser for Alcohol Change UK, 70% slept better, 66% had more energy and 86% saved money. Six months later they were still drinking less than before.

What a break from alcohol tells you

Pay attention to how the first week goes, because that’s where the useful answers are normally found.

What you notice during the break	What it may be telling you
The days pass without much thought about alcohol	Your drinking is habit rather than dependence, and a change of routine will hold
Sleep improves, mornings get easier, your mood steadies	Alcohol was costing you more than you knew
You keep renegotiating the rules, or the break ends early without your deciding to end it	The habit has more of a hold than you thought, and it’s worth talking to someone
Shaking, sweating, nausea or severe anxiety on days without a drink	Your body has become physically dependent, and you need medical advice before stopping

That last row matters more than the others. Alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous, so if you’ve been drinking heavily every day, speak to your GP before you stop rather than pressing on alone.

Where to find local support for a drinking reset near Guildford

If the break showed you something you’d rather not sit with alone, the next step doesn’t have to be dramatic. I run Addiction Care from consulting rooms in central Guildford, Surrey, offering one-to-one therapy face to face or online by Zoom. Everything we discuss is confidential, and you don’t need to have reached a conclusion before you call.

We start with an assessment; a conversation about what you’re drinking, what it does for you, and whether that amounts to dependence. If it does, we talk through what would help, and residential rehab is not the only route. If you’re reading this because of someone else’s drinking, I also run a Family Programme for partners, parents and adult children.

Taking the first step

Curiosity about your drinking is worth acting on while it’s still curiosity. A short break costs you very little and tells you a good deal, and whatever it shows you, you’ll decide what comes next on better information than you had before.

If you would like to talk, either for yourself or for a loved one, please call 01483 533808 or get in touch online to book a confidential assessment. You’re welcome to bring nothing more than a question.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a sober curious break from alcohol be?

Two weeks is enough to notice changes in sleep, energy and mood, while a month shows you how much you rely on alcohol socially. If you’ve been drinking heavily every day, speak to your GP before stopping, because withdrawal can be medically dangerous.

Can I be sober curious if I drink every day?

You can be curious about it, and the fact that you’re asking is worth taking seriously. Daily drinking raises the chance that your body has adapted to alcohol, so speak to your GP or an addiction specialist before you test yourself with a sudden break.

What’s the difference between being sober curious and being in recovery?

Sober curious people choose to take a break and can usually stop and start without much difficulty. Recovery describes the ongoing work of someone dependent on alcohol, for whom drinking again carries serious risk. The two overlap when a break uncovers a dependence that was already there.