Dr. Anna Lembke

Thank you so much.

But I mean, I think this is really an important point that we blame ourselves often as parents with these issues.

And yet, even like the perfect parent with all of the time in the world, it's still really, really hard.

And then if on top of that, let's say you're a single parent or you have cancer or you're working at double jobs or whatever's going on, then you have a whole...

added layer where it's just, I just wanna acknowledge really, really tough for parents, even very hard, well-intentioned parents who really care.

So your son, he's 13, is that cusp where it just starts to get really, really hard to take the device away because kids are manipulative, sneaky.

You know, one of the telltale signs of addiction is lying about our use, whatever the drug is.

If we take the device away, they'll often go and get another device or pay for one themselves or what have you.

So once you've entered these teenage years where you've sort of got these, they're like off living their own lives, this is where open dialogue really becomes core.

Having, again, and I emphasize this with Ida, but sitting down with him, again, a time you're not dysregulated, he's not dysregulated, even schedule on the calendar, we want to have a family meeting.

I like to call it a family meeting because it's like we're a family.

Yeah.

And being in a family is hard.

We're all equal partners.

You sit around the table, you get the whole family.

And again, it starts with observation.

Here is what I am seeing.

And one of the things that is most notable and most distressing with tech addiction is the kind of

antisocial traits that come out in kids where they basically are rude, right?

They treat parents badly, they manipulate, they're very self-involved.