Internet addiction = disease?

[readme.txt]

I haven't found any other thread about this, but sorry if there is one.

This is an old article (and the debate too), but yet, still worth discussing, imo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2008/nov/11/china-internet

"Feeling tense and angry because you cannot get online?" asks the state-run China Daily. Powerless to stop scouring eBay for second-hand bargains you don't really need? Unable to tear yourself away from stalking would-be love interests on Facebook?

It could be a sign of "internet addiction", according to psychologists in China, which could become the first nation to classify the problem as a clinical disorder.

[snip]

Is internet addiction really a "disease"? Why?

Is it a good thing for countries like China or USA to recognize it as a disease?

Why haven't "television addiction" or "casino addiction" been recognized as diseases yet? (Or have it?)

Would people who become mad/addicted to internet become mad/addicted to something else if they did not "meet the internet"?

When should someone be categorized as "addicted" [to internet]?

Please don't simply answer by "yes" or "no" to these questions, explain yourself.

[Moderators, feel free to delete this thread and link me to the thread I did not find, if there's one]

[Professor Yaffle]

You can basically get (psychologically) addicted to any rewarding behaviour which you can use as a coping mechanism in dealing with stress. If you can call out of control gambling an addiction, then internet use can be too.

Personally I don't think of it as a disease, but I don't particularly think of alcohol or drug addiction as a disease. It's certainly a mental health problem though.

[Mirrorglass]

Internet and gambling can produce very similar results. It's certainly an addiction, but whether it's a disease depends on whether it's unpleasant or harmful to the person. That depends on the situation; it's possible to be internet-addicted and still lead a normal life, work and have a family, in which case it's just a hobby, no problem. It's also possible to get so into internet you fail to take care of other aspects of your life, which is a growing problem around the world.

[readme.txt]

Personally I don't think of it as a disease, but I don't particularly think of alcohol or drug addiction as a disease. It's certainly a mental health problem though.

I think I fully agree with you. Someone's mental health problems may cause his "internet/television/gambling/whatever addiction", but the addiction itself is certainly not the disease.

[blutoski]

I haven't found any other thread about this, but sorry if there is one.

This is an old article (and the debate too), but yet, still worth discussing, imo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2008/nov/11/china-internet



Is internet addiction really a "disease"? Why?

No: it's a disorder (as stated in the article).

Nobody's calling it a disease that I can see.

[readme.txt]

No: it's a disorder (as stated in the article).

Nobody's calling it a disease that I can see.

The title of the article maybe

[Professor Yaffle]

I do hate the fact that the article writer is not often also the writer of the title. Editors stick their noses in all the time and this sort of thing is the end result.

[Marduk]

I do hate the fact that the article writer is not often also the writer of the title. Editors stick their noses in all the time and this sort of thing is the end result.
Yeah well its very common for people to make an ass of themselves by making comments based on something they haven't read, sometimes its so subtle that most people don't even notice it
;)
:p
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction
However, common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence. In this context, the term is used in drug addiction and substance abuse problems, but also refers to behaviors that are not generally recognized by the medical community as problems of addiction, such as compulsive overeating.

The term addiction is also sometimes applied to compulsions that are not substance-related, such as problem gambling and computer addiction. In these kinds of common usages, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences, as deemed by the user himself to his individual health, mental state, or social life.

;)

[readme.txt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disorder_(medicine)#Disorder


Disease
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Disorder (medicine))

[blutoski]

No: it's a disorder (as stated in the article).

Nobody's calling it a disease that I can see.

Having said that: it's a semantic question at its core anyway. Many uses of 'disorder' are interchangeable with 'disease'.

My sister doesn't think that chicken pox is a disease, so there's always going to be somebody knee-jerking about whether this or that is realy a disease.


In any case: regarding internet addiction. There's clearly profound abnormality with a patient who meets the proposed diagnostic criteria.

The value of categorizing this disorder is to standardize patient descriptions for the purpose of comparing treatments for effectiveness.

[blutoski]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disorder_(medicine)#Disorder

I'd advise against using wikipedia as a medical resource.

[blutoski]

The title of the article maybe

Yep. The journalist who doesn't know the difference (1). Or the title-writers (in many papers a diffrent staff than the article authors).

What I'm saying is that the people quoted as the proposers themselves aren't using the word.

Laypersons do appear to use the terms loosely, but I didn't get the impression the poster was asking about casual conversation so much as what was being proposed by the people cited in the article.



-----
1. recall the '[blondes are warrior princesses (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLsoG8R3deE)]' story from Jan)

[Mirrorglass]

I'd advise against using wikipedia as a medical resource.

It's actually not that bad, as long as you remember to check the sources of an article. Not sufficient for self-treatment, of course, but usually pretty accurate.

[blutoski]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disorder_(medicine)#Disorder

Yep:In mental health, the term mental disorder is used as a way of acknowledging the complex interaction of biological, social, and psychological factors in psychiatric conditions. However, the term disorder is also used in many other areas of medicine, primarily to identify physical disorders that are not caused by infectious organisms, such as organic brain syndrome.

Internet addiction sounds like a disorder.

[blutoski]

It's actually not that bad, as long as you remember to check the sources of an article. Not sufficient for self-treatment, of course, but usually pretty accurate.

I disagree. Especially for anything that even remotely smells of controversy, and also treatment modalities currently under patent.

[readme.txt]

In any case: regarding internet addiction. There's clearly profound abnormality with a patient who meets the proposed diagnostic criteria.

I agree.

Say a guy is addicted to internet/computers and meets all the proposed diagnostic criteria. Now imagine this guy in a world where computers don't exist : would he end up addicted to something else? Would his mental health disorder cause other problems (not necessarily an addiction, e.g. compulsive disorder)? Would he live normally?

These questions might be "equivalent" to : is internet/computer the cause of his disorder?

I'd advise against using wikipedia as a medical resource.

What are you talking about? I cured from ebolavirus using wikipedia :D

[readme.txt]

Internet addiction sounds like a disorder.

Not that I agree or disagree with what you say, I'm just curious :

Say a person washes their hands once every 5 minutes with really hot water, because they're somewhat "addicted" to the feeling, or they have an "unexplainable bacteria fear", or whatever. Should we say this person has a "hand-washing-because-of-addiction/reason-X disorder"? Or should we say this person has an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)? In other words, might the fact that this person washes their hands once every 5 minutes just be a very particular case of the mental disorder category called OCD?

If so, then we might ask the same question for internet addiction : should we say a person (who is addicted to internet) has an "addiction/compulsion disorder" (or whatever it is called) from which "internet addiction" would only be a particular case? ETA : And so, this might lead us (or not) to say "internet addiction" is not a disorder, but only one particular case of some other disorder.

[nimzov]

I am "addicted" to learning new things. I spend a lot of time on the Internet for that. [Insert the required porn joke here].

Addiction ? I guess it depends how much time you spend on the Internet and how you use it.

[blutoski]

I agree.

Say a guy is addicted to internet/computers and meets all the proposed diagnostic criteria. Now imagine this guy in a world where computers don't exist : would he end up addicted to something else? Would his mental health disorder cause other problems (not necessarily an addiction, e.g. compulsive disorder)? Would he live normally?

These questions might be "equivalent" to : is internet/computer the cause of his disorder?

Oh, yes: I don't think this is evidence that the internet has any sort of universal addiction risk, but it's important to understand that some things are more addictive than others, and this is because of their ability to provide reward.

My parents are a bit conservative and never hesitate to point to things like this as evidence that things were better when they were kids, but this is just a modern-day bookworm from what I can tell.

However: there is a noticeable difference between compulsive behaviors versus addictive behaviors and between addictive behaviors that have cognitive reward mechanisms versus those that have more direct psychophamaceutical mechanisms. (although there can be some overlap in the mechanism via, say opioid receptors - there is stong evidence that this is true)

I think it's reasonable to suspect that a person with internet addiction disorder will need a different treatment approach than a person with heroin addiction. Differential diagnoses are probably valuable.



I should point out that exclusionary diagnoses are taken into account during the diagnostic process. In other words, it's relevant if the behavior is already explained by an overarching diagnosis that generalizes. So, for example, if the compulsion to check emails is a mechanism for a fear of missing an email and thus not having a perfect record for email-reading, this is OCD or GAD &c.

If the person is glued to the computer because she has to engage in internet flame wars to be fulfilled, I would say we're really dealing with OCPD.

Asocial personalities, avoidant personalities, introversion... these are exclusionary diagnoses.

I would say that internet addiction is probably quite distinct from many other types of psychopharmaceutical addictions in that the latter are much more highly correlated with impulsive behavior and even borderline personality disorder. I've never heard of somebody, say, lurching from hooking on streetcorners supporting a meth habit to suddenly pulling WOW allnighters.

[Mirrorglass]

I disagree. Especially for anything that even remotely smells of controversy, and also treatment modalities currently under patent.

Hm. I haven't really bumped to any glaring mistakes myself, though I guess I haven't really been trying to find treatment modalities. I suppose if there are mistakes mixed in, it's not really as usable then. At any rate, one can't take wiki articles at their face value, but they can point to the right direction.

ETA: Wow, I took a look around, and you're right. I never realized the patents have such an effect. That's good to know.

[blutoski]

Addiction ? I guess it depends how much time you spend on the Internet and how you use it.

More a question of how does it affect your abiltiy to enjoy life.

Two people spending the same amount of time on the internet for the same purposes could have different impacts on their life.

Single unemployed teenagers who spend 8hs/day playing WOW over the summer are not experiencing the same serious consequences as [two parents who spend 8hs/day playing virtual baby (http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2010/03/07/korean-couple-chose-virtual-baby-over-their-own-while-addicted-to-mmorpg/)].

[Dancing David]

Um, there may be a biological basis that drives some addictions, however internet addiction is a behavioral disorder. (Aside from the whole 'psychological addiction' thing, which I try to avoid like the plague.)

[blutoski]

Um, there may be a biological basis that drives some addictions, however internet addiction is a behavioral disorder. (Aside from the whole 'psychological addiction' thing, which I try to avoid like the plague.)

Yes, that's the complication: addictive behaviors (compulsions?) may have some pyshcopharmaceutical element.

Specifically, there is a relationship between epilepsy and gambling that suggests a candidate pathway model.

[nimzov]

More a question of how does it affect your abiltiy to enjoy life.
Definitely.

I think that you can have good reason to spend many hours, on the Internet without being "addicted".

[readme.txt]

I think that you can have good reason to spend many hours, on the Internet without being "addicted".

Yes :) Trust me.

[JFrankA]

This is something that always kind of bugged me.

As I see it, (and I may add I am in no way an expert, this is just an opinion based on my own personal experiences, so please correct me if I am wrong), an "addiction" is something that is physiological: a chemical element is introduced into the body so much, e.g. nicotine, heroin, etc, that it changes the body chemistry so that the body becomes dependent on the substance.

A "compulsion" is psychological: a behavior is taught and reinforced so that the urge is there, such as a task/reward behavior.

This is where I base this upon (and warning: here comes the anecdote :)) When I was overweight, I was told for a long time from several people I had a "over eating addiction" which made me feel sorry for myself, to be honest. Almost like I had caught a sickness or something and there wasn't much I could do about it.

But when I went to Weight Watchers, they didn't call it an addiction, they called it a compulsion. For me, that simple change of word helped me to losing weight. Over eating was something I can control. It was my mind, my decision, and I had to be aware of why I made the decisions to over eat when I did. That was a big help.

Nowadays, it bothers me when I hear the word "addiction" attributed to something that is a behavior. The idea of "sex addiction" or "internet addiction" especially get on my nerves. It seems to me that anyone with a high sex drive (who is not a true nymphomaniac, which is a real disorder), and enjoys their drive is labeled as having a "sex addiction". To me, it makes it sound like an excuse and or a judgment. As to "internet addiction", that bothers me just as much. Might as well say that there's a "television addiction" or a "music addiction".

Both "sex addiction" and "internet addiction" just seems like an over-hyped-easy-to-diagnose-illness to me that's used as an excuse and as a way to sell a "process of getting out of the addiction". There was an article in Wired magazine about "internet addiction camps" in China where the children are abused horribly while charging the parents a lot to "cure" them.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_internetaddiction/

Now I may be making a mountain out of a molehill here, and I may be completely off base, but I feel that the word "compulsion" is much more accurate and the word that should be used. Also a compulsion, imho, is something more manageable than an addiction.

Sorry for the rant and I don't mean to hijack the thread. It's just something that obviously kind of bugs me, and was wondering about other people's opinion.