If you have a television, you must take this program.

Week 1: Write down everything you watch without changing your habits.

Week 2: At the beginning of the week, write down what you plan to watch. Keep track of what you actually watch and rate each program. Was it entertaining and recreational? Did it teach you anything? Was it a boring waste of time?

Week 3: Again write down what you plan to watch, cutting back to two hours a day. Keep track as in week 2.

Week 4: Turn the television off for an entire week.

The best time to pursue this program is during the last four weeks of Lent. If you can't turn the television off for a week, then sell it, it controls your life.

Many recently have been surprised, when we identified some actions that clearly indicate that the person is a TV addict. Therefore we shall reproduce some of the symptoms of TV addiction, so that addicts can know their problem and treat it. Some will read this and must begin the first step toward a cure of their disease, which is often mortally sinful: I am a TV addict. If you find yourself here, then you are a TV addict and must seek spiritual help to overcome your addiction, because the only addicts that go to heaven or those who are trying to overcome their addictions.

1. Watching TV, because you are bored or have nothing else to do. If children regularly say, I am bored or show an inability to amuse themselves, then they are TV addicts and the only cure is to pull the plug on the TV for a significant period of time. Many families will go totally without TV for Lent to begin treating this form of addiction in their children. In this case, not only must the children abstain, but their parents as well, because the whole household is addicted and is not really a home, because the people merely TV together, they do not live together. Watching a program you don't like, because there is nothing else on. There is usually something else to do, even if it is merely getting out for a walk or sitting under a shade tree and watching the grass grow and the children play.

2. Proceeding immediately to a TV, when returning home or entering some other place where a TV is readily available. This is like the addict, seeking a fix after being away for a while.

3. Leaving the TV on when a person comes to visit, showing that TV is more important than your visitor.

4. Organizing your life around the TV schedule, so you don't miss something important.

5. Watching TV in bed at night, which interferes with sleep. Also Saint Thomas observes that we should be meditating on holy things as we drift off to sleep, which is impossible if the TV is going. Parents just don't seem to realize that the last thing children see or hear before bedtime is what stays in their subconscious and becomes part of the sleep experience., Cathy Marino, quoted in Breaking the TV Habit. (Must reading for anyone who has a TV.)

6. Leaving the TV go for several hours, even if no one is watching. Another symptom is to seek noise in other forms, such as radio, when TV is unavailable.

7. Young children (under 12) being up past ten at night.

8. Failure to complete fifteen minutes of spiritual reading, a few minutes of meditation and your daily Rosary, as well as morning and night prayers. All of this will take a little more than the time consumed by one sitcom. So, if you have time for TV, you have time to do spiritual reading, meditation, etc.

9. Using the TV as a babysitter for children so you can get work done. If they comply, then you know they are addicted. However, if they fight this form of babysitting, be happy because you have normal children, because TV is not normal for children.

(One person observed that no child under five should even look at a TV, because it is injurious to their eyes, and allowing them to may be a sin, even possibly a serious sin.)

10. A preoccupation with electronic things by children.

11. Inability to turn the TV off for a whole day once a month.

12. Neglect of duty.

13. Watching TV before the day's work is done. Remember the simple rule: WORK FIRST, TV LAST.

14. Conversation centering around TV.

15. A short attention span or reading difficulties.

REGULATE THE TELEVISION

From The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation page 16 ... he who is ... wholly absorbed with the attractions of the theatre (and television) and ballroom can have no valid claim to the title of faithful Catholic.

Television addiction is the most common addiction in the world. We have been studying the problem of addiction for many years. We find many are addicts of one form or another. We could write volumes on this terrible problem, but wish to reduce it to simplest form.

Addiction is often a symptom of an underlying problem. Deal with the problem and the addiction disappears. If you do not deal with the problem, then all you can do is go from one addiction to another. The alcoholic, when he quits, becomes either a workaholic or a TV addict. (Often he becomes a sugar addict as well, as sugar is a socially acceptable addiction.

Alcohol, sugar and some food addictions stem from hypoglycemia and thus can be treated by a proper diet. (See above) However, they may have been caused by some other problem and in turn cause hypoglycemia, which will require a two-pronged treatment.

Finally, some addictions are simply habits of sin and thus must be treated on the spiritual plane. However, from Our observation the addictions are causing the spiritual problems and therefore their underlying cause must be removed before spiritual progress is possible.