TLDR: I have my life back.
Or maybe I didn't have a life to begin with.
The point is, I have one now, and it's because of this book.
Kicking the Habit draws upon a few key evidence-based components to deal with all of the aspects of internet addiction: Motivational interviewing, mindfulness-based meditation/grounding techniques, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Combined these are a powerful combination for focused, incremental change toward a life free of internet addiction.
When I started this workbook, I was devoting up to 9 hours a day to wasteful internet activities such as Facebook, Messenger, my favorite message board, and more. My life felt out of control, nothing was getting done, and my chronic depression was intensified by my lack of productivity. The breaking point for me was a diagnosis of adult ADD and the realization that my internet time was making my attention problems much worse.
Here are just a few of the lifestyle changes I've made since completing the steps of this workbook:
1. No electronics at bedtime. I now fall asleep of my own volition usually by midnight. No more sleeping pills!
(Note: This does not include Kindle reading. The author seems to think this counts as electronics, but my goal is to read more and this is my preferred method. Ya'll can pry my Kindle from my cold, dead hands after I die in my sleep after reading it at bedtime. I have, however, taken to reading it by lamplight rather than the stimulating backlight.)
2. I went and got an actual library card. I can now check out free e-books (maybe not what the author had in mind, but oh well.)
2. I now own an actual alarm clock, not a phone alarm. It has a natural sunrise feature that wakes me gently. My phone is in another room charging when I wake up in the morning. I stretch, eat breakfast, jot down the things I have to do that day, go through my morning routine, and generally have a more pleasant, less-stressful start to my days.
3. Distracting Internet time is now limited to 2 hours a day, at scheduled intervals, and frankly I don't even use up all that time anymore. I have set my Inbox to only deliver e-mail twice a day, and I have a scheduled period for reading it. I don't keep a regular Facebook account anymore, just one for my writer's group (we meet in person biweekly.) Sometimes I go days without messaging my internet friends. True story.
4. My phone has no Messenger, Facebook, Cracked, or other time-wasting apps.
5. I'm reading vociferously -- finished three books last week, which I haven't done in ages. My house is clean. Best of all, I've been devoting between 20 and 30 hours per week to revising my novel, and am on track to have a manuscript ready for submission by February 2017. In short, I'm reaching my life goals.
So this book was everything I hoped it would be. I'm married to a clinical behavioral psychologist and have extensive experience both doing and learning about evidence-based interventions for various mental health afflictions. I'm very impressed by the quality of this book, by the evidence supporting each of the interventions suggested, and by the ability of the author to communicate such a comprehensive plan, with so much compassion and understanding, in such a short space.