More clients seek therapy for out-of-control smartphone use

Addiction treatment centres are seeing more clients seek help for phone use that has slipped out of control, as clinicians and public-health officials draw a sharper line between heavy use and a pattern that can disrupt sleep, work and relationships. The concern has grown even though smartphone addiction is not an official diagnosis in the DSM-5 or ICD-11, a gap researchers say does not erase the harm for people caught in it.

Marios, a personal trainer, says a bad day can leave him staring at his screen for more than 14 hours, with Instagram his biggest trigger. He is now trying a 12-session course of private therapy at Private Therapy Clinic, and he believes loneliness is driving the compulsion. Clinicians say that picture is often mixed with trauma, mood disorders, anxiety and poor self-control, and research has linked problematic smartphone use with anxiety, depression and insomnia in teenagers.

The scale among young people is difficult to ignore. The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory says up to 95% of 13- to 17-year-olds report using a social media platform, nearly two thirds use it every day and about one third say they are on it almost constantly. It also says children and adolescents who spend more than 3 hours a day on social media face double the risk of mental health problems, including depression and anxiety. The warning has pushed the issue beyond a private habit and into a public-health debate about how much screen time is too much.

Evidence from England points in the same direction. In a National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded study of school pupils, 18.7% of 16- to 18-year-olds and 14.5% of 13- to 16-year-olds self-reported problematic smartphone use. Young people with problematic use were more likely to report anxiety, depression and insomnia, and many said they wanted help cutting back. That finding has strengthened the case for treating excessive use as more than a matter of discipline.

Policy makers are still trying to separate real harms from wider alarm. A UK government-commissioned review published on 20 January 2026, by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and a Scientific Consortium of 14 UK scholars, said there is growing concern about the risks digital technologies, especially social media and smartphones, may pose to children and adolescents. It called for stronger causal evidence, better measurement and a clearer distinction between individual-level harms and population-level effects.

Treatment systems are beginning to adjust. FindTreatment.gov describes itself as a confidential, anonymous resource for people seeking help with mental and substance use disorders, and addiction specialists increasingly say excessive phone use may need structured counseling rather than a simple appeal to willpower. For many patients, the hardest part is not proving that the phone is addictive, but admitting how much of daily life it has already taken over.