Seeing my 11 year old niece all time watching TV and reels, today I tried to politely explain her what's going on. Was struggling to make her understand about this addiction. To my surprise a general framework came to rescue.

After the session, what I found more valuable is filling her mind with this mental model to use for different situations in life.

Mental model was simple. It was stages of awareness - Unaware, Problem Aware, Solution Aware, Action.

With some humorous stories and examples, I let her believe through her answers, she was on Unaware stage and now moving to Problem Aware stage. And showed her, what a Solution Aware in this case looks like. And it could be difficult to move to Action stage even you are Solution aware. And all this is part of the game and will take time to move across stages, and can be hard. But best part is making progress and questioning.

Later we practice this for junk food, any of her subject question, etc.

I know this not gonna break her addiction instantly.

But what I found is, she was listening and curious to ask questions. Was not resisting, as she use to do earlier. That was also my win.

But the biggest win is for the first time, I tried to give her simple general mental model, a new way of thinking so she can keep it with her for life. (of course, a few reminders from me are needed initially)

So this is what made my Sunday today. 🙌🏻❤️