By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Mental health professionals in the United States have highlighted the
emergence of a new psychiatric problem on a par with alcoholism, drug
abuse or obsessive gambling: internet addiction disorder.
It occurs when an American office worker who should be focussing on
the tasks at hand is spending hours playing fantasy football on the
computer instead. Or when an executive is so attached to his handheld
device that he checks it last thing at night and then consults it the
moment he opens his eyes in the morning.
Some people spend so much time online that they stop going out, their
marriages break up and they are overwhelmed by depression and suicidal
feelings.
According to estimates in The New York Times yesterday, as many as 10
per cent of the 189 million internet users in the US could be
addicted.
Hilarie Cash, who heads Internet/Computer Addiction Services in
Redmond, near Seattle, has identified a specific chemical rush -- a
dopamine high -- which can be generated by even something as simple as
receiving an email. She told The New York Times that she has seen
instances of anxiety and depression in her patients.
Other internet addiction experts have developed 12-step programmes to
wean people off their online habit, or started support groups for the
addicts' spouses.
There are many definitions of internet addiction disorder. One by
Jennifer Ferris, a psychologist from Virginia, points to seven
telltale signs such as a thirst for ever more time spent online,
trembling or even involuntary finger movements when the users is away
from the computer, dysfunctions in day-to-day relations with friends
and co-workers and, at the extreme, the loss of a job or a marriage
because of excessive internet use.
However, other professionals argue that internet addiction is merely a
new platform for other pathologies such as gambling or obsession with
pornography.
Internet use is on the rise. A report by the Pew Internet and American
Life Project this year found that more than half of American teenagers
were online every day, compared with 42 per cent five years ago.
And its economic impacts are now being quantified. The business
consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas recently estimated that
American fantasy football alone was costing US employers $200m in lost
productivity every season.
Mental health professionals in the United States have highlighted the
emergence of a new psychiatric problem on a par with alcoholism, drug
abuse or obsessive gambling: internet addiction disorder.
It occurs when an American office worker who should be focussing on
the tasks at hand is spending hours playing fantasy football on the
computer instead. Or when an executive is so attached to his handheld
device that he checks it last thing at night and then consults it the
moment he opens his eyes in the morning.
Some people spend so much time online that they stop going out, their
marriages break up and they are overwhelmed by depression and suicidal
feelings.
According to estimates in The New York Times yesterday, as many as 10
per cent of the 189 million internet users in the US could be
addicted.
Hilarie Cash, who heads Internet/Computer Addiction Services in
Redmond, near Seattle, has identified a specific chemical rush -- a
dopamine high -- which can be generated by even something as simple as
receiving an email. She told The New York Times that she has seen
instances of anxiety and depression in her patients.
Other internet addiction experts have developed 12-step programmes to
wean people off their online habit, or started support groups for the
addicts' spouses.
There are many definitions of internet addiction disorder. One by
Jennifer Ferris, a psychologist from Virginia, points to seven
telltale signs such as a thirst for ever more time spent online,
trembling or even involuntary finger movements when the users is away
from the computer, dysfunctions in day-to-day relations with friends
and co-workers and, at the extreme, the loss of a job or a marriage
because of excessive internet use.
However, other professionals argue that internet addiction is merely a
new platform for other pathologies such as gambling or obsession with
pornography.
Internet use is on the rise. A report by the Pew Internet and American
Life Project this year found that more than half of American teenagers
were online every day, compared with 42 per cent five years ago.
And its economic impacts are now being quantified. The business consultants
Challenger, Gray & Christmas recently estimated that American fantasy
football alone was costing US employers $200m in lost productivity every
season.
Copyright 2005 Independent News and Media Limited
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