Hooked On The 'Net

Discusses a study on Internet addiction in the United State as published in the 'Journal of Affective Disorders'.Routines being neglected by compulsive surfers; Characteristics of an impulse control disorder; Comments from Nathan Shapira, assistant psychiatry professor at the University of Florida

    Over 44 million families are online, and over half of their members--about 25 milion people--may qualify as compulsive surfers. So is "Internet Addiction" a new psychological phenomenon?
    In a study published recently in the Journal of Affective Disorders, researchers from the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Cincinati examined the habits of 20 people who had spent more than 30 nonworking hours a week online for the past three years. The participants described skipping sleep, ignoring family resposibilities, and showing up late for work to fulfill their desire to visit chat rooms and surf the Web.
The consequences were severe: Many suffered from marital problems, failed in school or lost a job, and accumulated debt.
    The evidence points to a psychological disorder, so reseachers probed further and found that the participants' habbits metthe criteria for impulse control disorders mental illness characterized by an uncontrollable desire to perform a behavior that, once executed, is often followed by a hugesense of relief. And most of the participants had a history of additional psychiatric problems like eating disorders and manic depressin.
    Perhaps the most surprising--and widely reported--finding in expert's Kimberly Young, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh original study was that the majority(60 percent) of dependent users were middle-aged women, particulary housewives, not young male computer geeks. But this has not held up in later studies, which give men a slight edge. Young suspects a bias occured in her first study, perhaps because women are more likely to admit and talk about their problems.Still, she understand the appeal that chatrooms hold for these women and others in her sample. "You never worry about how to look or how nice a house you have and you talk to people all over the world. It's instant gratification without having to reveal yourself." Lonely housewives or shy sophomores can feel like exciting people when on-line. "It's novel and unique, and they get attached to the people they meet on-line." Young says.
    "Addiction," notes Young "is a layman's term, not a clinical one." Young chose the label "Internet addiction" because it's readly understandable by the public. When writing for clinical journals, however, she refers to "pathological internet use".
    Other experts shun the term addiction altogether because it means too many things to too many people. "It's asloppy word," says pharmacologist Carlton Erickson, Ph.D., head of the addiction Science Research and Education Center at the University of Texas at Ausin. In the drug abuse field, he notes, "dependence" has replaced "addiction". "In dependence, people can't stop because they have developed a brain chemistry that does not allow them to stop," explains Erickson. Excessive behavior that hasn't quite reached full-fledged dependency, meanwhile, is called "abuse". If internet abusers cannot stop for a month, suggests Erickson, then "Internet dependence" would be the appropirate term/ Others belive that the problem is best described as a compulsion, suggesting the perhapse "compulsive Internet use". And many psychologists question whether excessive internet use should be pathologized at all: John Grohol, Ph.D., who directs the Web site "Mental Health Net," says that by the same logic, bookworms be diagnosed with "book addiction disorder".
    Among those developing treatments for the problem is Maressa Hecht Orzack, Ph.D., apsychologist at Harvard University's McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. Orzack founded Horvard's Computer Addiction Services in Fall 1996, after seeing first hand the fallout from Internet-related problems: divorce, child neglect, job termination, debt, flunking out of school, legal trouble. One client, she says, had separated from his wife but couldn't afford to move out because he spent so much money on computer services. He moved his bed into the computer room and started an affair with an on-line sweetheart.
    College students are often vulnerable to internet addiction because many universities provide free, unlimited access. At the university of Texas Counseling and Mental Health Center at Austin, Scherer and her computer scientist husband Jacob Kornerup created a workshop, called it's 4 A.M. and I Can't--Uh, Won't--Log Off, to help stidents recognize harmful internet habits. Scherer and Kornerup recommended a chart sorting weekly internet time into academic/professional and leisure/personal use. If a large part of your leisure time is spent on the internet, she says, ask what you get out of it, what you're giving up, and why you're finding on-line time so much more pleasurable than other activities. Take note if your personal relationships are suffering.
Next, set a goal of how many hourse a week you want to use the internet. If your actual useage exceeds it, remind yourself to log off after a period of time. Set a kitchen timer and turn off the computer--no excuses--when it rings.
It's particulary important to separate work and play when on-line, says Jane Morgan Bost, Ph.D., assistant director of the University of Texas Counseling and Mental Health Center. Stay focused, visit only sites needed to complete work, and don't detour.Also, she says, cut back mailing list memberships and sort play e-mail from work e-mail.