Push To Classify Internet Addiction As a Mental Disorder

March 17th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

I disagree with it, if you are using the internet for no value and you are hurting someone then you are addicted to it , it’s all depend on individual uses. if hanging on Techcrunch for 1 hour is compulsive behavior then so be it , as long as this website give me idea that i can use.

Nat
http://www.workersinc.com

March 17th, 2008 at 5:55 pm

Very interesting question- do nerds suffer from a mental disorder? Many display various forms of anti-social behavior that certainly fall outside the norm. But I digress…

There’s a big difference though between someone who’s an avid internet ‘hobbyist’ and someone who acts through a compulsion. In the latter case, there’s a lack of self control that’s driven by compulsion. The behavior and attitudes of the avid hobbyist are clearly different than the obsessive-compulsive, even if the difference is harder for a researcher to explain in an article. To a normal person, telling the difference isn’t very hard.

If you’re not sure if you’re exhibiting compulsive behavior, Duncan, just ask one of you’re colleagues. They’d know.

March 17th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

let see, if you are within the web2.0 lifestreams , then you are classified as an ‘internet addict’

“some people may need psychoactive medications or hospitalization.”

I need so addicated now, that I need a linky for that infonuggut. On what basis is the MD giving ‘psychoactive medications or hospitalization.”

..and hey while at it, can Canada also make sure that this is covered under the disability act ?? I would love to sit and get covered by medical insurance while I surf the web.. lets make it a disorder that is legal !! :)-

March 17th, 2008 at 6:20 pm

1939 - “Listening to more than one hour of radio is a symptom of addiction..”
1957 - “Watching Elvis perform, listening to Rock and Roll, that’s what The Devil wants you to do..”
1965 - The Federal government is investigating the comic book industry and it penchant for depicting illicit sex and violence that have led to ‘addicts’ nationwide..”
1979 - “Motorola’s pending sale of the cellular phone, a telephone that has no connecting wires and can be used anywhere, will lead to “talk addicts” incapable of participating in human to human conversation…”

Shall I continue? Do I need to put a YouTube clip of Reefer Madness in here?

March 17th, 2008 at 6:41 pm

Nice likeness of MA

March 17th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

“excessive gaming, sexual pre-occupations and e-mail/text messaging.” Woops: they forgot “twittering.”

March 17th, 2008 at 7:13 pm

@ 6. Phil - good point, however…

I don’t place much merit in conventional psychology/psychiatry. Although these people may be able to categorize prevalent behavior occurring in a set number of people (whichever number the gods of the field have preordained), I find it excessively arrogant that they classify instances of significant social phenomena as “addiction”.

Addiction holds a negative connotation for the majority of people who hear the word. How many parents will want to hear that their children are addicted or have a “disorder” and are “abnormal”?

Actually, the real question is, how many people will be willing to pay for their children to be “fixed”? Trust me, these professionals (paid to do their job) know how people react to these words. (props to the pharma joke Duncan)

Now don’t get me wrong, there are worthwhile “disorders” that need to be treated - since there is little room for them in contemporary society. But let’s get real, ADD is a disorder? Stop defining new world social occurrences by old world standards - this is the information age - there’s an overabundance of information and innumerable channels to obtain it (even with or without conscious effort).

Respectful weight should instead be placed on the combined field of psychology and economics (regarding individual incentive) - which in turn should heed physical scientific principles. I guess the closest application would be game theory.

The human genome project will also be of great use in this field once the application scales and is next followed by a resolution between the medical practices and insurance firms’ inevitable conflict of interest.

March 17th, 2008 at 7:42 pm

I’d rather be addicted to Internet than to some kind of chemical substances like alcohol, drugs, nicotine, etc.

I also don’t think you can treat an Internet addict the same way you treat a drug addict or an alcoholic. I don’t think Internet addiction can be treated actually… Internet is just so cool! Why spend less time on it?

March 17th, 2008 at 9:05 pm

Hi I think we should start an anon group therapy project 24×7 on line to deal with the problem. I think we can have a very low cost effective solution that would allow users and volunteers to dedicate time and energy to sole the issue. Also, we can raise some revenues to support effect by online targeted advertising.

I think it is a great idea sign me up!

March 17th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

Haha, I sure do have this mental disorder. Many a time, I find myself struggling to keep away from computer and the net. I am against MikeT’s comment that ‘why spend less time on it’. We got to limit the time we spend on it and socialize for sometime outside rather than on Facebook.

March 17th, 2008 at 11:19 pm

I can see it now. I’m going out on disability. I have Internet addiction.

March 18th, 2008 at 2:43 am

I’m rather surprised that a link to the original editorial piece - “Issues for DSM-V: Internet Addiction” - is nowhere to be found. People can get addicted to anything given the right set of circumstances.

Speaking of our dependence on connectivity… here’s a book worth reading: “Feed” by M.T. Anderson: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0763622591

March 18th, 2008 at 5:40 am

Just want to say hello to every body….

March 18th, 2008 at 10:23 am

13. Joter

I totally here where you are coming from…but I do have some feedback.

1. It sounds like you main issues are with organized psychology and psychiatry as a whole (which is very closely linked to bid pharma) …generally I agree with you.

2. ADD and ADHD are the most over diagnosed “diseases” in the country. I am not trying to bust anyone’s balls, but 5 year old should be on mood altering drugs. The last stats I saw showed 20% of males between the ages 5 and 11 are on Aderol or Ritalin…not good. If 20% of people do something is normal behavior, if .05% of people do something it is a disease. We are talking behavior, it is very subjective. I am cool with adults taking drugs to help them concentrate, self medication is the American way…I am not cool with adults giving kids drugs b/c they aren’t getting the grades their parents want them to get or behaving in a way that makes a teachers life easier…but I am getting way off topic.

3. “Addiction holds a negative connotation for the majority of people who hear the word. How many parents will want to hear that their children are addicted or have a “disorder” and are “abnormal”?”
–> this is a clear statement that shows that you are going off gut instinct, not medical knowledge, which again is fine. Your heart is in the right place, it is just irrelevant. Weird people are what make the world go-round, we can’t diagnose and medicate that away…that is what you are trying to say (I think).

Note: ADD and ADHD are just as much a bi-product of our uber-competitive culture as they are brain based disease. There is a saying in medicine, “correlation doesn’t equal causation”. There is no test for ADD or ADHD, no gene, no visible brain behavior on a cat scan or EKG. Then how can we know it is there? Remember, diseases have causes, clearcut, pathological causes. It wasn’t that long ago (as late as 1940) that we were locking up and “circumcising” women for opening enjoying sex…it was called “hysteria”…now that word meas something else. This doesn’t mean that ADD and ADHD as a behavior types don’t exist, it just means that it is over diagnosed and prescribed.

I am not suggesting we start treating “internet addiction”, I am only suggesting that it fits the criteria for a “addiction”.

March 18th, 2008 at 9:06 pm

I agree, but can see a possible disaster as well. There are many people that I would agree have a documentable disorder when it comes to an internet addiction. However, it is something that I can see as easily being confused with general addictive behavior, a desire to escape from reality, and various other disorders. Though that isn’t exactly a different scenario than with most other disorders or just general personal problems for that matter.

March 25th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

Check out this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/.....ition.html

Texting is not a Mental “disorder”!

Take Your Mental Disorders and Your Psych Drugs and Your UnScientific Diagnostic & Statistical Manual and Shove Them! Petition to The American Psychiatric Association and Psych Drug Manufacturers.