TV Addiction

After my realization I did a little bit of research on TV addiction. Even though it is not a diagnosable condition of DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV) it is recognized as a real problem. It is a form of behavioral addiction, in which an individual repeatedly engages in an action until said action causes serious negative consequences to the person's physical, mental, social, and/or financial well being.

There have not been any serious negative consequences for me, but I know this cannot continue this way. I have a very active boyfriend, who does a lot of sport. He does not like the fact that I spend so much time watching TV. And he is right: I could be using my time for other things.

While researching I found a couple of interesting articles and sites on TV addiction and how to overcome it.

Too much TV hinders children development of motor skills

A recent Portuguese study analyse the effect of sedentary activity on motor skills. The study measured the activity level of 213 boys and girls between 9 and 10. What they found is that kids who spent too much time in front of the TV or the computer had poor motor coordination, even if they did practice sports regularly. So too much TV cannot be balanced out by regular sport activity. Children should spend the majority of their time playing, jumping around and climbing trees. TV time should be limited.

Until I was about 12 I did play a lot outside, jumped around, climed trees. Around the age of 12 what changed was that we moved. We moved to an apartment in a building where there were no other kids. My friends from school lived far away and there was no real play area for me in the building. Since we were not members in a sports club and my older sisters did not want to play with me all the time I ended up spending my afternoons after school in front of the TV. I did a lot of crafts while watching TV, but I still ended up knowing the afternoon and evening schedule of 3 TV channels by heart. I watched reruns of the Nanny, Full House, Friends, Gilmore Girls and Dawson's Creek in the afternoon and then new episodes of several series in the evening. Those that I could not watch because they were too late I taped (on VHS! Man I'm old...) to watch the next day.

When I moved to Germany to study my behaviour continued. I zapped from one TV channel to another until I found something I was interested in (usually series reruns). It slowed down a little when Uni started and I had classes spread out through the day. But there were still several series that I was avidly following and would not miss an episode.

What really helped was when I moved to another city early in 2011 and did not take my television with me. I ended up only watching my series online. But with time more and more new series were added to my list.

How to overcome TV addiction

Sydney form untemplater.com posted a usefull 10 step programm to overcome TV addiction and an article I found gives you 17 ways to beat your TV addiction. They give some very useful tips like setting a limit of TV hours per week or not eating in front of the TV.

Since this post is already quite long I will tell you in the next one which are the ones I found most useful and how I implemented them. Until then: What is your favourite show? Are you a TV addict? Here is a test where you can find it out.