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.

Reputation Comments on this post:

LOL

[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

[lulz]

Originally Posted by old hippie 56

25 Signs That Computers and the Internet Rule Your Life

IMO this article could also be a checklist for general intelligence in modern society. The majority of "socially cool", intelligent people I know are quite knowledgeable about three things: music, computers and drugs.

A few decades ago those same kind of people would have just been knowledgeable about music and drugs. Changing world.

[enquirewithin]

What internet addiction?

Touch my modem and I'll kill you!!!!!!!!

[Cuberun]

SWIM has always had it quite easy handling his drug use. Currently been clean for about 3.5 months (yes excluding alcohol). This isn't even intentional, swim would probably use something if the chance came around. Just been busy.

SWIM has noticed something however, every morning he gets this.. rush putting the computer back on. He works a lot on the PC. Always feel drawn to the PC and eventually fatigued. Watching movies, playing games and even working on it. SWIM spends way too much time on the computer. Heck, swim even retrieves his drug through his computer and the internet.

I have seen those World of Warcraft Mountain Dew gamers fuel drinks (basically it's caffeine).. So that + WoW seems like a horrendeously disabling addiction in terms of accomplishing stuff in your life.

Swim does have physical hobbies which takes him away but still spends something like 10 hours a day at the computer which feels way too much. In a sense he can't cut it down. Only 2-4 of those are spent doing actual work.

Whats your take on it?
Have you ever considered yourself addicted to the internet/computers? (this includes computer games of course)

[Gradient]

Cuberun,

Interesting comment! Yes, especially after reading the book Neuromancer by William Gibson - I noticed my own evolution to integrate the computer into my regular cognitive processes. SWIM has had vivid imagery of Drugs Forum itself (admittedly stimulated by some of SWIM's favorite psychedelics) as a nexus of digitized neural activity, aggregating thousands and thousands of individuals to one 'place' in the internet - fostering actual communication between disparate brains. I know, maybe a little dorky for a psychedelic experience, but I know where you're coming from!

Regarding that rush that you refer to. It sounds like you've (I'm guilty too!) made some pretty strong associations of the computer to numerous sources of rewarding (in a neurological sense) entertainment. For example, your brain will express an increase in dopamine release in anticipation of initiating a gaming experience on a computer; right before your desktop has appeared and your computer is going to be able to load the game, your brain will release small amounts of dopamine to make you excited in anticipation of the activity, that you've (and me too) identified as rewarding, that's just about to occur. The same paradigm could be applied to movies, navigating the internet, etc...

Cool idea that one could actually become addicted to that kind of a dynamic. When merely handling cocaine paraphernalia (snorting tubes, razor blades etc...), past cocaine addicts have been shown to express brain activation in the same regions that are active when actually taking cocaine - only to a lesser degree. In other words, the post-addicted individual's brain simulates (or approximates) the subjective reward elicited by ingesting the drug prior to actually ingesting the drug! Perhaps a similar dynamic is occurring here?

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good point about the association.

[Sushi]

Yes, Madlab is addicted to computer.
His wake-up routine is free from smoking anything (now), alcoholic or any other eye-opener. But when he wakes up, he starts to brush his teeth and while brushing them navigates towards his PC, starts it up, moves to the kitchen, gets the coffee preparations going, falls back to the bathroom (system is almost loaded), spits out water and navigates back to the kitchen to pick up his coffee and have a seat at the desk, hand on a mouse.

Yes, this is how addiction looks like.
(Madlab is also addicted to coffee and drinks it even though it makes him feel ill)

[Heretic.Ape.]

Monkey is lost if he doesn't spend his morning routine of coffee and computer. He always has several tabs open on his browser, his music playing, watches his movies, communicates primarily via email, etc. His workday is spent at his computer, he goes home and immediately turns on his computer with joy. He is slowly moving toward total symbiosis with his pc and a future as a cybernetic entity

I blame this site. To think that two years ago monkey was never on a computer unless writing a paper for school.

[Leftöver Crack]

all swim knows is if he could acquire an internet addiction that killed his opiate addictions he'd be on the internet 24/7.

[Sushi]

^
Swiy can try and possess both - unfortunately an addiction is for life.
But one addiction can suppress something more damagingly addictive.

Madlab is not approving of theory behind the concept of suppressing harmful addictions with "not-so-harmful" or "somewhat beneficial". But usage of other psychoactives is sometimes practical and he practiced it swimself (for example cannabis and alcohol helped him with overcoming nicotine addiction). And contact with a computer is actually beneficial, especially with a computer connected to the net.

Originally Posted by Gradient

I noticed my own evolution to integrate the computer into my regular cognitive processes.

This is very true, computer model of the universe is deeply imprinted in my imagination already. And contact with computers transformed my imagination essentially. My language and linguistic imagination transformed. It was enlightening.

Originally Posted by Gradient

SWIM has had vivid imagery of Drugs Forum itself (admittedly stimulated by some of SWIM's favorite psychedelics) as a nexus of digitized neural activity, aggregating thousands and thousands of individuals to one 'place' in the internet - fostering actual communication between disparate brains.

I found this phenomenon mirrored in recent Alf's experiences with dissociatives. Also, swiy theory of reward ("small dopamine shots") is very appealing.

[ex-junkie]

swim spends alot of time on the computer, and can definitely see an association with it being addictive behaviour.

it is very rewarding to swim, as she studies online, posts music online, watches porn online (:grumble.), speaks to her boyfriend and some of her favourite music producers online.

swim wakes up in the morning and turns on the pc whilst she is getting ready.

swim has often wondered about "subliminal messages" used by advertising networks and websites, in order to keep people online/keep people returning to buy products/music/etc...

sort of in the same context as poker machines and gamblers...

[cyndi]

Me and the ape are just alike. Have to read emails with the brew. Then start surfing for things or not that I need. If that isn't bad enough, I bought an instinct. A mini computer.

[chillinwill]

I do everything on the computer. From spending time on DF to listening to music, to playing games, doing schoolwork, and watching movies or tv shows, all of this I do on my computer. I spend a good amount of each day being on the computer so you could almost classify that as an computer/internet addiction. It's not a bad addiction though