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This paper explores the psychodynamic treatment of Liam, a 14-year-old adolescent boy referred following a prolonged period of social withdrawal and immersive digital preoccupation. His relationship to his smartphone was not merely excessive – it had become essential to his psychic survival. Drawing on contemporary psychodynamic theories of digital objects, auxiliary ego functions, and symbolic collapse, the paper conceptualises Liam’s digital attachment as a transitional defence against internal fragmentation. Across the course of treatment, Liam’s compulsive digital retreat gave way to tentative forms of symbolic thought and relational presence. Rather than aiming to eliminate screen use, the therapy worked to create a containing space in which Liam’s digital defences could be interpreted, integrated, and eventually relinquished. Attention is given to the therapist’s role as a surviving object, the therapeutic function of digital mirroring, and the evolving transference within a world increasingly mediated by screens. The work suggests that for some adolescents, survival begins not with disconnection – but with symbolisation within and beyond the screen.