If your addiction has gotten this far, it's time to start labeling it as just that, and there's no shame in it.

At a certain point you need to accept that you will not be able to willpower your way out of it. You need systems and strategies in place that cut you off from your addiction.

That can look like a lot of things that I'm not going to try to stuff into an HN comment but here's what works for me:

- Leaving the house with a dumb phone. I recommend using an old smartphone that is meticulously stripped away from bad things over purchasing a flip phone. You're eventually going to need to call up an uber, scan a QR code, and other such smartphoney things you need a dumb phone to do. Leaving your environment is also key. If you must, bring your actual phone with you, but fully powered off.

- Using a feature on your phone to cut yourself off from YouTube on a scheduled basis. Most phones have something like this by default, but there are also some third party apps that take it a step further.

- Have something you enjoy to take the place of YouTube. Entertainment is healthy to an extent. Taken too far, it becomes a distraction from cognitive processes you need to be regularly engaging in, to say the least.