Internet addiction
Internet
addiction disorder (IAD),
or, more broadly, Internet
overuse, problematic
computer use or pathological computer use, is
excessive computer use that interferes with daily life. These terms avoid the term addiction and are not limited
to any single cause.
According to Maressa Orzack, director of the Computer Addiction Study at Harvard University's McLean Hospital, between 5% and 10% of
Web surfers suffer some form of Web dependency.
Another supporter, David Greenfield of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction
conducted a study with ABC News.com
in 1999 and is author of Virtual
Addiction. He believes that
some services available over the Internet have unique psychological properties
which induce dissociation, time
distortion, and instant gratification, with about 6% of individuals
experiencing some significant impact on their lives. However, he says it may
not best be seen as an addiction but rather as a compulsion. Greenfield claims that
sex, gaming, gambling, and shopping online can produce a mood-altering effect.
Psychiatrist
Dr. Goldberg states that Internet addiction disorder is not a true addiction
and may in fact be no more than a symptom of other, existing disorders. An overbroad
description of addiction leaves open the possibility of every compensatory
behavior being declared an addiction. For example, a person who has lengthy
telephone conversations with a friend to avoid an unpleasant situation could be
declared "addicted to the telephone" with equal validity as a person
who chats on the Internet with the same underlying goal.
Most, if not all "Internet addicts", already
fall under existing diagnostic labels. For many individuals, overuse or
inappropriate use of the Internet is a manifestation of their depression,anxiety, impulse control disorders, or pathological gambling. IAD is compared to food addiction, in which patients
overeat as a form of self-medication for depression, anxiety, etc., without
actually being truly addicted to eating.
Here we
have a real Story from: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=112559289&m=112619452
Where
we can hear. “Seattle Program Claims
To Treat Internet Addiction”
Ben Alexander says he's an addict.
The soft-spoken 19-year-old says that around the time
he went off to college, he became involved in an online game called "World
of Warcraft."
"It fairly quickly got out of hand to where I was
missing classes and spending entire days just playing, and not doing anything
else," Alexander says.
About to flunk out, Alexander asked his folks for
help. His family is now spending $300 a day to keep Alexander away from the
Internet. He is the first client at a startup detox program called reSTART,
which operates out of a large country home outside Seattle. The house belongs
to program co-founder Cosette Dawna Rae, who runs a combination
counseling/massage therapy business on the same site. It's a place with goats,
doves and chickens.
Alexander helped build a new chicken coop, something
he'd never done before. He says outdoor activities suppress his urge to go
online. Alexander also gets counseling from Hilarie Cash, a psychologist from
suburban Seattle who co-founded the program. Cash has made a career treating
what she calls "Internet and technology addiction."
"We know that people tend to get hooked by things
that are rewarding, but unpredictably so," she says. "The Internet is
just built around that principle."
The Internet can be as habit-forming, Cash says, as
alcohol and gambling.
"If you do it compulsively, and despite the
negative consequences, then we'd say that's an addiction," she says.
It's a broad definition of addiction — too broad for
some people.
"It becomes this catch-all label for anything
that people find themselves spending a lot of time doing and find it very
enjoyable to do so," says psychologist John Grohol, founder of the mental
health Web site PsychCentral.com.
"That's not really what an addiction is, traditionally."
Grohol is more inclined to see excessive Internet use
as a symptom, not a disease; a symptom of, say, depression.
At reSTART, however, Cash says recognition of Internet
addiction will grow, and she is busy recruiting more clients. She has lost
track of how many media calls she has had or how many reporters have interviewed
the program's young first patient.
Alexander doesn't seem to mind; it's something else to
fill the hours, now that he's not online.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_addiction_disorder
