Article: Quitting any addiction cold-turkey has a low rate of success. Relapse rates are high for addicts with chemical addictions like nicotine or alcohol, as well as those with behavioral or procedural addictions like gambling, shopping, or internet addictions. Instead of trying to quit cold turkey, make a plan to scale back your internet usage in a manageable way, so you don't feel overwhelmed by the sudden loss of an important part of your life. Set manageable goals. If scaling back to one hour a day is your ultimate goal, maybe start with three hours a day. When you feel comfortable with one step down, reduce your daily allotment by half an hour. Keep scaling back your internet usage until you reach your goal. After you've made your plan, you need to stick to it, and you can't do that unless you're keeping careful track of how much time you're spending on the internet. If you're allowing yourself three hours a day at first, you might break that up into three sessions that are one hour each. If that's the case, make sure to set a timer to let yourself know when your hour is up each time you sit down at your computer. Egg timers can be purchased very inexpensively at any grocery store in the kitchen tools sections. Most phones have a timer app on them. You addiction may be so heavy that you don't trust yourself to stick to the schedule you've set for yourself. If that's the case, there are programs you can install that will limit your internet time for you. The program called Freedom will block you from the entire internet for up to eight hours at a time, whereas Anti-Social will block only social media sites like Facebook. If you don't trust yourself not to just turn those programs off, purchase one that requires a password to disable its settings, and have a friend set up the password. Choose a friend you trust not to give you the password!
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Make a plan. Set a timer. Buy or download an internet-blocking app.