Internet Addiction

[~lostgurl~]

Tel Aviv University Redefines "Internet Addiction" and Sets New Standards for Its Treatment

August 15, 2007
Tel Aviv University

TAU researchers aim to educate medical health professionals on net hazards at the workplace and in schools

Is your first craving in the morning for your computer mouse? Do you obsessively check email in the middle of the night?

If so, you may be among the ten percent of all Internet surfers afflicted with “Internet addiction disorder,” a pathological condition that can lead to anxiety and severe depression. To better diagnose and treat Internet addiction, Dr. Pinhas Dannon, a psychiatrist from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, recommends that it be grouped with other extreme addictive disorders such as gambling, sex addiction, and kleptomania.

A senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University, Dr. Dannon is known worldwide for work in the area of gambling and addiction, a major research focus for him since 1995. His first article on kleptomania was published in 1996. He will present his new research findings on addiction at the National Gambling Council’s meeting in Las Vegas this November.

Internet addiction is currently classified by mental health professionals as an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), a mild to severe mental health condition that results in an urge to engage in ritualistic thoughts and behavior, such as excessive handwashing or, in the case of the Internet, Web surfing. “But we are saying that we need to look at Internet addiction differently,” reports Dr. Dannon on behalf of his colleagues from Tel Aviv University and the Be'er Ya'acov Mental Health Center. “Internet addiction is not manifesting itself as an ‘urge.’ It’s more than that. It’s a deep ‘craving.’ And if we don’t make the change in the way we classify Internet addiction, we won’t be able to treat it in the proper way.”

Two groups are at greatest risk from Internet addiction disorder, Dr. Dannon warns. The first are teenagers. But more surprisingly, the second are women and men in their mid-50s suffering from the loneliness of an “empty nest.” The symptoms of Internet addiction in both groups are vague and are often difficult to diagnose. Sufferers may experience loss of sleep, anxiety when not online, isolation from family and peer groups, loss of work, and periods of deep depression.

Treating Internet addiction can only be done effectively, believes Dr. Dannon, if the condition is treated like any other extreme and menacing addiction. For example, a clinician could use talk therapy or prescribe medication such as Serotonin blockers and Naltrexone, which are also effective against kleptomania and pathological gambling. No less important, Dr. Dannon stresses, is that mental health practitioners in schools and workplaces should be made aware of the risks of Internet addiction. Workshops on these risks should be held in both milieus, he advises.

Dr. Dannon and his colleagues have recently reported their findings in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology; and have since waged a mini-campaign around the world to warn doctors about the dangers associated with excessive Internet use. Their research on gambling addiction has been used to educate American doctors taking the annual “Continuing Medical Education” test taken before the doctors can renew a license to practice medicine.

According to Dr. Dannon, Internet addicts are inevitable and a product of modernization. “They are just like anyone else who is addicted to coffee, exercise, or talking on their cellular phone. As the times change, so do our addictions.”

http://www.tauac.org/site/News2?page...rticle&id=5739

[Broshious]

Originally Posted by ~lostgurl~

According to Dr. Dannon, Internet addicts are inevitable and a product of modernization. “They are just like anyone else who is addicted to coffee, exercise, or talking on their cellular phone. As the times change, so do our addictions.”

Thank god for that last quote. Internet addiction? I'm sure there are a few people who are actually addicted to the internet, but for the rest of us...we just like being online. It's like any other activity that you enjoy...you do it as much as you can.

[Heretic.Ape.]

I'm not addicted, I can leave this computer any time I want! I just don't want to...

[~lostgurl~]

When you can quit you don't want to, and when you want to you can't.

~ the old guy in the movie 'Candy'

[zera]

Anything that people enjoy doing is really just a trap for addiction, as upstanding American citizens we must ban everything fun, soothing or enjoyable. I personally spend 90% of my time self-flagellating myself, while listening to nails on chalkboard play on an endless loop, watching nothing but crappy 80s cop shows and having morray eels bite my penis. If I was to do anything else I might actually get positive dopamine or serotonin levels and ruin my life.

[lulz]

Originally Posted by ~lostgurl~

Do you obsessively check email in the middle of the night?

Hell no, I'm no addict!

Obsessively checking my user control panel for new subscribed threads and rep point changes doesn't count

[lulz]

Originally Posted by ~lostgurl~

"When you can quit you don't want to, and when you want to you can't."

~ the old guy in the movie 'Candy'

Dammit the universe rules with a sense of irony and dark humour! Paper clips, night buses, always there when you don't need them, but the second you actually do need one they do a vanishing act!

[Lunar Loops]

Originally Posted by zera

Anything that people enjoy doing is really just a trap for addiction, as upstanding American citizens we must ban everything fun, soothing or enjoyable. I personally spend 90% of my time self-flagellating myself, while listening to nails on chalkboard play on an endless loop, watching nothing but crappy 80s cop shows and having morray eels bite my penis. If I was to do anything else I might actually get positive dopamine or serotonin levels and ruin my life.

Now that really does sound like a good time. Just a little teaser to begin with using a black velvet whip and then onto a good whipping with stinging nettles and ending up with a good flogging with birch twigs. All the while steeping your bits in a bucket of electric eels for extra stimulation whilst watching re-runs of kojak.....who loves ya baby?

Actually at what point does an enjoyable pursuit become an addiction? It's all a bit of a grey area really.

[fnord]

i never gave anyone permission to do a study on me!

[old hippie 56]

Here a little tidbit I found:

25 Signs That Computers and the Internet Rule Your Life

by Beatrice Adams, Aug 6, 2007
Do you consider the Internet a basic utility? Do you have friends who know you better by your username than your real name? If somebody told you to “google it,” would you know what he wants you to do? Does your computer rule your life? Here are 25 signs that it does.

1. You can't remember the last time you wrote an entire paragraph using a pen and paper.
2. You consider Internet a basic utility.
3. Between your Internet and your TV, you would rather lose your TV.
4. Between your Internet and your phoneline, you would rather lose your phoneline.
5. The Internet IS your phoneline.
6. You carry a flash drive in your purse or pocket.
7. You carry a laptop with you wherever you go-or you wish you could.
8. You have a callous on your right wrist, where you rest your hand when you use your mouse.
9. Your “diary” is not protected with a lock and key, but with a username and password - and it is open to be read by anybody in the world.
10. You've joined an online forum and regularly post messages on it.
11. You are - or have been - a member of a Yahoo group.
12. You've watched 1,500 orange-clad prisoners dancing “Thriller” on YouTube.
13. You know the meaning of the word “google” - and if you don't, you simply Google it.
14. When you hear the word “spam,” you don't think of food.
15. You've bought and sold things on eBay.
16. You've had an online love affair.
17. Half your friends only know you by your username.
18. The other half know your real name AND your username.
19. You've mastered computing the time in several different time zones because of all those online meetings you schedule with your Internet friends.
20. You no longer buy greeting cards; you get them free online and send them through email.
21. You no longer buy newspapers; your morning news is regularly sent to your inbox.
22. You no longer buy calendars; you use the one in your email reader or taskbar.
23. If your wall clock suddenly disappeared, you wouldn't miss it very much either.
24. You don't keep pictures of your kids in your wallet, but you set them as your wallpaper and screen saver.
25. You need a computer to view your children's photos.

[fnord]

8 10 12 15 and 16 were the only ones i missed.

[misspaf]

6, 15, 17 and 20 the only ones...

I gotta get a life!

[Heretic.Ape.]

Originally Posted by fnord

8 10 12 15 and 16 were the only ones i missed.

I know for a fact that you are guilty of number 10

[fnord]

Originally Posted by heretic.ape.

I know for a fact that you are guilty of number 10

OOPS!!i meant to click on 11,im seing a on screen keybored to type