Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD) Symptoms and Treatment

Spending time on Facebook is a new favorite pastime. The average Facebook user spends about 40 minutes every day using Facebook. It would be okay if everyone who uses Facebook would limit his activity on the site to this amount of time. However this does not seem to be the case. A lot of the 1.35 billion users spend excessive time on Facebook which affects their lifestyle and other healthy activities. Read on and find out symptoms of FAD and learn how to treat it.

FAD Exists

An American psychologist believes that this is such an important issue that he has given it a name and defined the disorder. According to him, Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD) is defined as being addicted to the social networking site to such an extent that it affects your natural, healthy balance of life.

A Few Symptoms 

Spending hours and hours scrolling the news feed or having a tab open on your desktop all the time while working are a couple of indicators that you have fallen prey to this disorder. Checking your phone every few minutes in the hope of a notification so that you can give yourself an excuse to open up Facebook also counts as a major symptom. 

Other signs showing that Facebook has invaded too deeply into your life and inside your mind are when you observe that staying away from Facebook for some period of time has become a challenge. If you feel the urge to check in on your news feed every now and then, failing to do which results in stress and a constant botheration, you are in trouble.

Similarly, if you would rather spend time on Facebook than do the other things you used to enjoy, like playing sports or taking a walk or listening to music, it is a pretty clear signal that things are not right.

If you find yourself doing some or all of these things, then you need to sit up and take action. You need to take a long, hard look at yourself and admit to yourself that you are in a spot of bother. 

How to Treat This 

A good way to reduce the amount of time you spend on Facebook is by installing one of many apps available online. These apps help you keep track of your online activity. Then you can set milestones on your daily Facebook usage and reduce it step by step and see your old lifestyle returning again! Also, I recommend you read a more detailed information and instructions on how to overcome Facebook addiction here.