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Addicted to Information?
SiMac writes "According to this New York Times article, two Harvard faculty members say that information causes a "dopamine squirt" in humans, a rush similar to that given by narcotics. Just as narcotics are addictive, information is as well. They've given the disorder of information addiction the name 'pseudo-ADD' because it tends to cause somewhat ADD-like symptoms."
A person can have an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Such a person can be 'addicted' to just about anything. The question is whether the substance is medically recognized as "addictive". You can also replace "substance" with "activity" or whatever.
"If somone could prove that ADD is an abnormallity I would believe this, until then I will be a dissenter of the pill pushing community."
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Probably wise, and certainly cheaper. Then again, watch out for the government / legal system forcing you to be drugged, or forcing your kid to be drugged or they will take them away from you.
One article:
http://www.chiro.org/pediatrics/ABSTRAC
More on both sides of the issue: http://www.savvypatients.com/add.htm
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It's called obsessive compulsive disorder. All of the people in that article exhibited classic symptoms of it. Constantly checking one's email and constantly checking news are just another manifestation of it.
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Here's the definition from the Harvard Medical School Division on Addictions:
Addiction is the compulsive use of a substance or activity resulting in physical, psychological, or social harm to the user; the user continues in this pattern of behavior despite the harms that result. Addiction is differentiated from psychological dependence and physical dependence. Psychological dependence is the feeling that someone has when they think that drugs or activities are necessary to achieve a feeling of well-being. Physical dependence is marked by the development of tolerance to a drug or activity's effects so that increased amounts of a drug or activity are needed to obtain the desired effect. Tolerance also reveals its presence by the development of withdrawal symptoms when the drug or activity is stopped for a sufficient time. These matters are more complex than often thought.
And here's the definition of addiction from the National Institutes of Health's MedLine.
Drug dependence (addiction) is compulsive use of a substance despite negative consequences which can be severe; drug abuse is simply excessive use of a drug or use of a drug for purposes for which it was not medically intended. Physical dependence on a substance (needing a drug to function) is not necessary or sufficient to define addiction. There are some substances which don't cause addiction but do cause physical dependence (for example, some blood pressure medications) and substances which cause addiction but not classic physical dependence (cocaine withdrawal, for example, doesn't have symptoms like vomiting and chills; it is mainly characterized by depression).
What you described is a voluntary lack of self-control. I think that's called gluttony.
This is simply how we study things. We now know that there are groups of people who react "differently" to certain sets of stimuli, and we have studied the phenomenon enough to have come to a general, but highly contested decision to treat such people with stimulants of various sorts. w00t. What now? Well, while certain researchers delve into the biochemical, genetic, physiological details of this condition, others will subspecialize in particular demographic slices of the group.
That's what grad school is for, isn't it? "Oh, oh, find something that noone else has really put too much time into and go write up a really long paper and come back in a few years so we can yell at you for a few hours".
Even outside of academia, the mentality is pervasive. This is why there's an aisle in stores for "cleaners". There are cleaning products for every imaginable material, for variants of materials. For vinyl, acrylic, plastics, laminates, polished surfaces, glass, concrete, stainless steel, silver, marble, stained wood, unstained wood, painted surfaces, etc... if we really didn't think that way, all we'd have is soap and water.
In any case, I'm glad we do these things. Of course, I am currently being strongly swayed by the prescribed afternoon dose of methylphenidate which is just now (aaah) breaking the blood-brain-barrier. Without people digging frantically into statistical data concerning behavior patterns, I wouldn't have my Ritalin.
The summary presented here is misleading - it seizes upon one small aspect of the article and makes it out to be the focus of the entire thing. It completely ignores the social aspects of the subculture surrounding technology. Here's my capsule summary of the article:
Always On: Is Multi-tasking Addictive?
The NY Times has a long and detailed article about multi-tasking in a communications technology-infused lifestyle. The fundamental questions it is trying to address is whether or not these technologies are addictive, do they tap into an underlying pathology or personality type, or are they causing shorter attention spans and reduced productivity? Ubiquitous and wireless technology have created an ''Always On'' subculture that may have given rise to pseudo-attention deficit disorder or online compulsive disorder, according to doctors and psychchiatrists referenced in the article, but technology executives and some users argue that conclusion is dead wrong. It's a thought-provoking read and it may spur some Slashdotters to examine how reliant you have become on mobile phones, pagers, instant messaging, wireless networks, powerful computing and broadband Internet, or how entrenched these communications technologies are in your own lives.
I dropped out of school because of it. I would spend 3-4 hours checking slashdot and browsing the web at a time! After I post messages like this I somehow have to check them every few hours.
I saw a phsycologist who specializes in disabilities because my ADHD was alot worse and I began to show signs of lethargic-ness.( If there is such a word ). Nothing interested me anymore and I could not focus.
Eventually I unplugged from the net and went through withdrawl symptoms. I got a shitty job since I no longer was in school and the economy went into the crapper. I had trouble at first but my attention span improved.
You made a reference to white Castle (which has shitty burgers by the way) and food addiction. In some people who are severely depressed it can effect their lives and jobs just like Internet addiction. Some people are move vulnerable then others. But yes they can be serious depending on the individuals genetic makeup to dopamine overload. I come from a family who has a few alcoholics. In my case I am susceptible because of the way my brain is wired from my genes.
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Do a web search on Asperger's Syndrome. There was a Slashdot article on it recently as well as a Wired story from a few years back.
I realize that you probably don't have a lot of access to information about ADD for two reasons:
The point of your ignorance lies in the statement that I have quoted above. I'm not blaming you for this ignorance, I'm just saying that it exists. I don't expect every person in the world to be complteley aware of every obscure condition (yes ADD should be obscure, it is just overdiagnosed when teachers don't feel like putting up with undisciplined kids).
Without writing a few paragraphs on it, the fact of the matter is that its not that people with ADD get bored because they don't like the current task, its that people with ADD can get bored even if they find the task at hand one of the more interesting things that they've done this week. People with ADD are, without some sort of help, are either incabable of maintaining a complete attention span. When these people are given help (either psychological counciling -- most common for people genuinely concerned with it, ranging to ridalin, a common medication) the person with ADD will respond and be able to function as a normal or above normal person in society. The testing usually involves looking at what the person (child or adult) is interested in and measuring their intelligence against the tasks that they like, but cannot perform at.
Go do something else. Switch careers. Get a hobby.
Ironically most people with ADD have done that. Some have done that hundreds of times in one year. Some have been forced to because they cannot pay attention long enough to hold one job. Its not that their not mentally capable of holding the job intelligence wise, its just that they cannot pay attention long enough given certain environments to do the job correctly.
If you saw the basement or storage area of a person with ADD you would see that they definitely have had a hobby. They probably would have had about 300 or so hobbies. They also would probably never be completely successful at one of them because their complete inability to pay attention will never let them get to involved in one of them. Keep in mind, it is not that a person with ADD does not want to pay attention, it is that they are incapable of it. Do not say that a person with ADD will just give up without trying (thus having so many hobbies and being unsuccessful with them) because studies have proven (can't link to them, they're on hardcopy) that the person with ADD is so stubborn that they will not let themself give up on something. It is usually when they have reached a point where they are completely frustrated due to the attention problems that they will give up (as a warning, people with ADD may be some of the most stubborn people you know, but stubborness in and of itself is not a telltale sign of ADD).
If they come up with a battery of tests proving these people are completely unable to pay attention more than X seconds/minutes to anything, including human-to-human threads of conversation, I'll start believing there is meat to this. But there is no such thing.
Like I said, I don't expect everyone to know in detail about ever obscure condition or disorder, but open your mind and read before you stick your foot in your mouth like this again. There is a very sophisticated batter of test that can prove ADD. Granted it is not foolproof, it is not an absolute answer because it can provide false positives. But then again, such is the way with diagnosis for Multiple Sclerosis and Lupis. Do you feel as though those diseases which kill people every day
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