Net Overuse called "true addiction"
By Marilyn Elias
USA TODAY
Obsessive Internet users have a true addiction that can hurt their relationships and leave them hung over or disabled at work, suggest the largest mental health study so far of heavy Net participants.
The study of 396 men and women on line for an average of 38 hours a week was presented to the American Psychological Society.
Net addicts are "not just geeky teen-agers," says psychologist Kimberly Young of the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford. "Many are outgoing, good-looking and middle-aged. They can look high-functioning, but there are serious problems just under the surface.
Heavy on-line users in her study all met psychiatric criteria for clinical dependence applied to alcoholics and drug addicts. They lost control over their Net usage and couldn't end it despite harmful effects on their personal and professional lives.
Some said they logged on the moment they woke up. Others snuck online when the spouses wouldn't catch them and stayed up "talking" to strangers so late they were exhausted at work. Some merely gave up sleep or friendships; others lost jobs, mates and peace of mind.
Three rewards drive what Young calls "Internet addiction disorder".
Community - meeting friends online. Overdoing it can be a sign of neglected real life personal relationships.
Fantasy - adopting new personalities or playing out sexual fantasies.
Power - instant access to information and new people, a positive that can go bad.
Comments by: David A. Brocato, BCSAC, ICADC
I have recently started setting up a chat channel in IRC calling it Addictions.Org. My initial intent was to create a meeting place for alcoholics, and drug addicts. I quickly found out that by adding Chat & Web Addicts Welcome in the topic of the channel that I was overwhelmed with people telling me about their Chat and Web Addictions.
One person told me how he lost his job due to his Chat Addiction. He said, I simply couldn't stop and then I was unable to get up for work. His wife eventually took the kids and left him. I asked him that night if he would send me his modem so that he couldn't log on. He quickly told me NO WAY. So even after losing his job and family he wasn't willing to stop. This is truly no different then the alcoholic or drug addict that is unwilling to stop even after losing everything. This is proving to be a much more serious problem then anyone ever imagined.