Hello

Is this forum also meant for addiction to internet news etc? I am reading news all the time for the last 6-8 years and can't break free. It has all sign of addiction (can't stop... impairs life... affects relationship...).

BH there was never the Porn and other filthy component to it. I have Jnet on my work place and K9 on my iphone. Nevertheless I feel this addiction is killing my day and my productivity as I sometime end up spending 4-5 hours just 'refreshing' Drudge, news.google etc.

I feel crazy coming to a forum with people that have serious issues and come with my seemingly non issie, but I feel total despair as to me, there is no hope of ever breaking free from an habit which is like food, (you need it but can't over do it)

Please help

Welcome to gye.

Among other tools, we use the 12 steps which were originally developed for Alcoholics.

They can be thought of as the standard for breaking free of any addiction.

However, I am unsure of whether you should be using this site if you don't have lust issues.  Why learn about things you don't suffer with and risk exposing yourself to new problems.

Of course, many will tell you that hanging around here doesn't pose any threat to you, but you have to know yourself.

I don't think I came across anyone here yet who never had lust issues.

Perhaps you would be best off sticking to your own thread, and not browsing around the forum.  This way you will only be dealing with YOUR issues.

After a little thought, I realized you should get R' Guards opinion on the matter.

R' Guard is the administrator of the site.

I will send Guard a message now.

The same 12 steps that help Alcoholics, and help people addicted to lust, also help people who are addicted to food, drugs, gambling, over-working, and just about anything else.

The underlying principles are the same--escape.  We are unhappy with our lives and we're looking for fulfillment.

The addiction is pretty much irrelevant.

I think also most of the discussion on this forum is safe enough.  People talk about having "urges" and "falling" and "slipping," which is a language that anyone can relate to (for example, the "urge" to know the news), and I don't think would trigger anyone or even so much introduce someone with some other addiction to new forms of acting out.

In fact, I think it's a problem that you often can't even tell what a guy's problem is.  You see the newbie's first post, "I NEED HELP, I HAD A BIG NISAYON AND NEED HELP.  WHAT SHOULD I DO!"  And, months and months go by and the guy still doesn't explain much more than that, and then he wonders why he's not seeing much improvement.

Also, I would add, lots of guys here, after cutting out the indecent internet content from their lives, realize that they haven't solved their problem yet.  They're still engaged in addictive, escape behaviors, including compulsive computer use, internet surfing, and often an addiction to news.

You know yourself, and can probably judge for yourself if this forum has given you new sorts of undesirable ideas, or if instead, it has given you hope and help to recover from your own variety of addiction.

Good luck, whatever you may decide,

--Eye.

THE NEWS IS GABAGE.
WE ARE ALL ADICTED TO GARBAGE.
REPEAT AFTGER BARDS
THE NEWS IS A PROBLEM
BUT ITS NOT MYPROBLEM

Our network is not really geared towards regular internet and "news" addiction, however I believe that some of the tools that work for addiction can help you too. I am sure that you are fully capable of limiting the time you spend on news, however since there is no "tangible" deterrent, you have a "mental block" that pushes away the negative implications of spending too much time on it. What I think might work good in your situation would be the following:
1) Write down what amount of off-work-browsing is acceptable for you at a time, say, up to 5 minutes at a time.
2) Write down the amount of time you think would be best for you to refrain from off-work-browsing, say, at least half hour intervals.
3) Then accept upon yourself a "knas" of $5 for anytime your off-work-browsing exceeds [5 minutes] within every [half hour].
4) If the knas is not enough for you, you can either raise the knas and/or find a friend who you commit to telling every time this happens.

The knas can be donated to the tzedaka of your choice (GYE obviously :-)

You will find that you have much more self-control than you thought you did, because the "mental-block" will disappear as soon as you make this commitment.

You might want to try this commitment for 2 weeks at first, and if you find it works well, you can extend it for longer.

Hope this helps

Echos of The Rebbe wrote on 29 Jun 2011 10:04:


I KNEW THE REBBE WOULD RETURN!!! ;D ;D ;D

guardureyes wrote on 29 Jun 2011 12:22:


Thanks all for replying...

My problem is that news addiction is quite like food addiction, where in moderation this is needed (well not quite life-supporting as food... but you get the point) especially in my line of work as askan in my community where I need to be apprised of what going on around me, and it's only the ton of hours I spend addictive to it which cause the problem, so therefore to curtail it with definite limits is quite hard.

What's more, the very definition of news is sketchy... in the past, when I tried many times to limit myself to only news vs. news commentary, this would obviously never work... (and to my fellow political bloogers lets not get worked up here about news reporters writing commentaries...) then what about blogs reporting on current events? you see the point...

Does the 12-step work with food addiction? how does the 'STOP' part of it work?

Thanks again

guardureyes wrote on 29 Jun 2011 12:30:

sorry to rain on the parade, but the rebbe is not back (yet?)

Sorry I am a little flabbergasted here... may be I am missing something or I am yet to new...

How did the rebbe coming back have anything to do with my anguish? was it to suggest that if I don't read the news I will miss the Rebbes coming back?

Seriously, I don't feel it's good manners to interject in the middle of a conversation unless it is to break some very urgent news...

sorry for interrupting, i had no intention of suggesting anything, just wanted to clarify something

please accept my apologies, if you wish i can remove the post

Zemiros don't worry...

I just simply lost track on how the conversation has anything to do with any rebbe...

you convo has nothing to do with the rebbe per se, but someone posted some comments in the spirit of the rebbe and Guard seems to think that the rebbe is back, so i just wanted to clarify that he is not back

the rebbe is Bardichev

carry on

Now you made me curious

Is it the Kedishas Leivi or some nick here?...

it'll cost you a $5 donation to GYE to satisfy your curiosity....
just kidding

here is Bardichev's thread
www.guardyoureyes.org/forum/index.php?topic=450.0