Discussion of Internet Addiction as Mental Illness Resurfaces

Lone Writer writes "The editorial section of the American Journal of Psychiatry for March offers the opinion that Internet addiction is a 'compulsive-impulsive' disorder, and should be added to the official guidebook of disorders. The editorial characterizes net addiction as including 'excessive gaming, [online] sexual pre-occupations and e-mail/text messaging'. From the article: 'Like other addicts, users experience cravings, urges, withdrawal and tolerance, requiring more and better equipment and software, or more and more hours online, according to Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. Dr. Block says people can lose all track of time or neglect "basic drives," like eating or sleeping. Relapse rates are high, he writes, and some people may need psychoactive medications or hospitalization."

Comments

Re:Fun stuff addiction?

[geminidomino]

Why not generalize to "fun stuff addiction" or "absorbing task addiction", and leave the Internet out of the name? Because if you generalize it, then you're actually expected to provide a solution to the claimed problem. If you limit it to the internet, you can just wank your way into claiming more stringent controls are for "the mental health concerns of the people" instead of "OMG! Teh intarwebs are teh scary ebil place!!11!1"

This guy's looking for money from the same sort of twat who supports the Clinton witch.

Re:Where's Jerry Springer?

[inTheLoo]

Didn't he show up in a Jerry episode called, "My dad is evil and want's to take over the world?"