Growing concern over Internet addiction

19 May, 2006 at 7:41pm ET Article published in Tech

Stopped smoking? Beat the bottle? Finally got your diet under control? You may have something else to worry about. For those not in deep denial, it may be time to take a closer look at your online habits.

For some people, the Internet may promote addictive behaviors and pseudo-intimate interpersonal relationships, reports Wieland in the journal, Perspectives in Psychiatric Care. “Such cyberspace contacts may result in cyber disorders such as virtual relationships that evolve into online marital infidelity (cybersex) or online sexually compulsive behaviors,” she writes.

“Obsession with and craving time on the computer results in neglect of real-life personal relationships to the point of divorce,” Wieland says.

What are the side-effects of going cold turkey with an Internet addiction?

Source: Reuters [i]via[/i] CNN

Comments

19 May 2006 ~ 7:44pm Sledgehammer70 Yeah I'm in Internet AA meetings already.
19 May 2006 ~ 7:45pm BlackHawk I have no idea what they're talking about...

/me pushes aside unholy amounts of pr0n
19 May 2006 ~ 7:53pm profdlp

Obsession with and craving time on the computer results in neglect of real-life...

As does obsession with and craving time with stamp collecting, model trains, or watching ESPN.

Why is it that Psychiatrists are so obsessed with sex? It's damn near all they ever want to talk about.

Prof may have made the wrong career choice...
19 May 2006 ~ 8:19pm RWB I know I have gone a couple weeks without internet usage or any computers and yeah there was some desire to see what's going on here at S-M but overall I was having fun doin the outdoors thing
19 May 2006 ~ 8:41pm Nosferatu Ah, give me a break, the media always acts like this some huge deal that everyone should be deathly afraid of. I'm willing to bet Dr. Diane M. Wieland isn't very technology-savvy herself and thus promotes these ludicrous ideas that a large number of people experience this problem to the point of having marital problems because of it. Some people out there are simply afraid of any type of relationship made online or comparison of real-life interactions to online ones.
19 May 2006 ~ 11:37pm Mt_Goat Yea right, internet addiction! I don't beleive it. y hbnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhggggggggggggghgvyhnbvyg h gb vhhhhhhhhh hhgb vybnvbnhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Damn, must have fallen asleep again. I hate when that happens.
20 May 2006 ~ 12:48am oldgypsy I learned a long time ago to totally disregard psychologists & psychiatrists. They are more screwed up than their patients.