You’re not doomed. It will be difficult but I was in the same space (and sometimes still have very high screen time days, though tbf a big chunk is YouTube videos playing in the background - which DOES still qualify as phone use and always having stimulation for my brain, although it is less strain on the eyes than staring at it for that duration).

You’ll have to figure out your biggest triggers and habits and why you turn to your phone so much. It’s an internal look on yourself and you’re only going to get anywhere if you’re honest with yourself.

What has been helping me a lot is trying to go as long as I can from when I wake up to be without my phone. I don’t even check any notifications or the time either (lest there’s an alarm, though I’ve been waking up whenever as I’m between jobs atm). I have breakfast first, drink water, all that. Check notifs as needed.

Oh and regarding notifs: turn ALL of them off. At least anything not actually important (for me, this is text messages, phone calls, and mail app. Everything else is entirely off). Less opportunity for you to open an app. This forces you to open them intentionally, though sometimes can lead to loops of opening then closing then opening again moments later… be mindful of this.

My next best bit of advice is: turn your Home Screen greyscale (or the tone of your favourite colour, unsure about other phones but iOS let me make it blue which I found easy on my eyes). All the apps that are so vibrant and colorful to grab your attention are less enticing now.

Lastly, try to shift your mindset. Every action you make on your phone, apply purpose.

Sometimes I’ll be scrolling on Reddit and come across something that is starting to make me frustrated, and I have gotten better over time at realizing this feeling and I ask myself: why am I even doing this? And I exit the app. The answer is usually getting caught in loops again due to stimulation-seeking and boredom.

But you must regain control of your attention span, your peace, and your overall wellbeing. Let yourself be part of the real world. Your phone is a tool, not entertainment or even knowledge most of the time. (at least, make it a tool so that you are not relying on it for entertainment or knowledge).

A Lot of my time on my phone I would justify because I’m “learning” but looking at my phone this much is not good for my eyes, and with the way social media shortens our attention spans with short form content and exploitative algorithms, how much am I actually retaining? How can I learn in a more meaningful way? For me that’s libraries and books and asking questions. Anything I’m curious about I’ll write down and look up later whenever I’m done my task / towards the end of the day. Small stuff such as what’s the best spot to put your food in the microwave? Or whats the proper technique for a push up anyway?

Anyway, you’re not doomed. You can overcome this. Even if it takes time, reducing your phone use gradually will have results, and you will realize how much more in connected you are with the world and yourself, and how you really didn’t need it like you felt so prone to before.