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First American Internet Addiction Treatment Center
An anonymous reader writes "Taking their lead from China, two Americans have opened the first US-based Internet Addiction treatment center in Fall City, Wash. — ironically close to Redmond (Microsoft's hometown). The center, called reStart: Internet Addiction Recovery Program, is a 45-day treatment center where, for a steep set of fees, people can be cured of their addiction to the Web. After paying the $200 application fee, addicts are charged $14,500 for the 45 days, an additional $800 for a screening, and more for extra services, like kayaking ($1,575)."
it very well sounds like the goal here isn't so much to actually "treat" people so much as to make large sums of money by catering to those of us who have access to lots of cash.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
What are YOU talking about?
I never said that they couldn't open a clinic without a having a medical degree... All I was saying is that I wouldn't trust those people as far as I could throw them to help others with their addictions.
I mean, they didn't even include a quote from the starters with why they do what they do...
It's odd how they've conveniently changed the meaning of "addiction". The definition used to be that for something to be addictive, it had to have physical withdrawal symptoms, like alcohol, caffiene, niccotine, heroin, etc. What used to be separately termed "habituation" is now termed "addiction".
However, as I learned when quitting cigarettes, the habituation can be as bad as the addiction. Two years after I stopped, and didn't even WANT a cigarette, I still slapped the shirt pocket that used to hold the cigarettes when I left work. Do anything for thirty years and you'll miss it, even if "it" is being hit on the head with a stick.
Free Martian Whores!
We're all pretty much guessing here, so I will present my best educated guess. IANAPsychologist, I only took Psych classes to get chicks...
First of all, just because someone spends a lot of time doing one thing, that does not make them an addict. To be addicted to something, you have to feel drawn to it against your will, it must be an overwhelming urge. You know the old saying "I can quit any time I want, just not today"... that's addiction! If the very idea of stopping is a stressful thought, it's addiction. If you play WoW 16 hours a day because you enjoy it, and have nothing better to do, it's just a perfectly normal hobby. Have fun and please don't grief me!
If a person is truly addicted to something, drugs/sex/internet/anything, to a degree where it can be considered harmful, chances are the obsessive behaviour is a way to escape some stressful element in their life. Addiction is a symptom, a coping mechanism. You don't treat the symptom, you treat the cause.
A few years ago, one would have said I was addicted to WoW. I played it 16 hours a day, did almost nothing else. I wasn't addicted to a game, I was burnt out from a soulless job, broke and depressed out of my skull; the game was a way to shunt that negativity aside and keep from going batshit insane. It provided the cheap on-demand gratification I needed to stay out of the dumps, and by that definition it was successful. It floated me through a few rough months and gave me time to deal with my issues.
In light of that, I believe these so-called internet addiction camps can only cause more harm. To charge that amount of money, for what equates to six weeks of adult summer camp, is to prey on the weak. It does not address the underlying problem at all. An "internet addict" would be better served by a psychologist/therapist, and for that kind of money you could see your therapist twice weekly for a whole year, which is extreme overkill. You'll probably be cured after a dozen sessions or so, but "cure" isn't the right word, I prefer "empowered", because the change has to come from within. A therapist helps you map out the path, but you have to take that step toward self-respect and self-control.
-Billco, Fnarg.com