Internet addiction is real, is a clinical disorder and should be recognized by the community as such. So says a a prominent psychiatrist in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
The symptoms of internet addiction are similar to those of other addictions. In using the Internet nonstop, addicts can forget to tend to their vitals (eating and sleeping), need more an more advanced technology to overcome tolerance (I need Firefox 3 right now!), and go through withdrawal. Nice.
Reminds me of that story from a few days ago, about those kids who were addicted to their cellphone.
You can read the original report, in PDF format, here.
The big culprits include excessive online gaming, watching pornography, and e-mail.
Strange, as much time as I spend on the computer, I absolutely relish the time I don’t have to be in front of it.
“Strange, as much time as I spend on the computer, I absolutely relish the time I don’t have to be in front of it.”
Haha, ’nuff said! :-D
~A
its nice to be away from it but i still get pissed at people who hold me up when i want to go home and get online, i keep thinking “im not doing anything right now, i could be reading some stuff online, or whatever!”
Hi Nicholas,
Yes, I really believe at one time in my life I was addicted to the Internet, since I would be up day and night, without much sleep, not eating, and falling asleep on the keyboard. However, I don’t believe that true anymore, because I have no problem putting the computer up, and maybe watching a movie or something else, and now I do eat my dinner. I think my addiction came from an Online game rather than the Internet though….certain games played online can do this as you mentioned! You just can’t seem to leave it alone. Well, it isn’t games anymore, it is this, such as commenting and reading people’s blogs…also blogging myself. I guess I could become addicted to this.
I think the ones watching pornography on the Net, really get sick especially if they carry it into their daily routines.
And as it says, “Internet addiction is real, is a clinical disorder and should be recognized by the community as such.” It needs to be recognized so people can get help much like an alcoholic or drug addict does.
We all know why they want a new addiction to be recognized… so they can line their pocket books with yet another condition and sound professional promoting their new “bogus concepts” at conferences.
At this rate, they will soon create a condition for those addicted to water with the main symptom being having trouble not getting through a day without drinking at least one cup of it.
Jon
http://dreamclue.com …get the message!
Thanks for the info. It seems many people are talking about this issue recently. I wrote an article for iCare recently about Internet addiction among teens. I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts on it: http://www.icarecoalition.org/icareArticlesDetail.asp?id=159
Thanks for linking is up to other excessive behavior sch as the cell phone time drain. The psychological profile of the internet itself is not addictive but the web might be addictive. There is a report about this at http://www.CarlJungTypes.com.