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Anna Cocke graduated from CUNY with a Master of Arts in Journalism, specializing in health and medicine reporting. She has helped produce segments for the Association of Health Care Journalists on health care reform and reported on diabetes in the South Bronx. She has been writing professionally for more than seven years. Photo Credit computer image by blaine stiger from Fotolia.com The Internet has become an integral part of many people's work and personal lives. The number of people online daily has nearly doubled over the past decade, according to research conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. While internet addiction as a specific disorder was being debated for inclusion in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as of 2010, treatment centers already exist throughout the U.S. and abroad, including China, Taiwan and Korea. Physical Effects Internet overuse can lead to sedentary lifestyles, weight gain and a decline in physical fitness. Other symptoms can include carpal tunnel syndrome, dry eyes, migraine headaches, a decline in personal hygiene and back aches, according to Maressa Hecht, founder of Computer Addiction Services and a member of the Harvard Medical School. if(typeof disable_adsense_2 === "undefined") { ad_order_2 = (typeof ad_order_2 === "undefined") ? "2" : ad_order_2; ad_client = "ca-livestrong_html"; num_ads = "1"; type = "text"; channels = "art_sub_top_Addiction_Recovery,article_top_diseases,article_top"; class_name = "adsense_afc"; print_google_ad(ad_order_2, num_ads, type, channels, ad_client , class_name ); } Sponsored LinksHow to Stay Asleep Obey this one weird trick to stay asleep all night long. Learn more. www.PeakLife.com/TrySomnapure Depression Depression has also been linked to Internet overuse by researchers at the Institute of Psychological Sciences in Leeds, UK. Researchers found that study participants who exhibited signs of Internet overuse engaged disproportionately than the normal population in sites devoted to pornography, gaming, social networking and chat rooms. They theorized that Internet addicts' use of these sites as replacements for real-life socializing was resulting in depression. However, there is debate as to whether depression results from, or is a cause, or internet overuse. A study published in the "Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine" found depression, as well as ADHD and social phobia, to increase the chances of excessive Internet use in adolescents. Sleep Disturbances Evidence also suggests that internet overuse can contribute to sleep disturbances. Studies of Chinese and American children, published in the "Journal of Sleep" and the "Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics," found that computer use among adolescents was associated with later bed times, later waking times, less restful sleep and an overall decrease in sleep. The use of computers before bedtime has also raised concerns among sleep experts, including Phyllis Zee, a neuroscience professor at Northwestern University, that the light from screens is affecting circadian rhythms and possibly contributing to insomnia.

Teenagers who are addicted to the Internet are more likely to develop depression or other psychiatric problems than teens who are classified as normal Internet users,

Researchers say that their work suggests that teens who use the Internet pathologically may be about 2.5 times more likely to develop depression than  teens who are not addicted to the Internet.

Researchers in Australia and China studied pathological or uncontrolled Internet use and later mental health problems in 1,041 teenage students in China. The students were free of depression and anxiety at the start of the study. Sixty-two of the teenagers were classified at the start of the study as being moderately pathological users of the Internet, and two were found to be severely at risk for uncontrollable urges to go online. Nine months later, the youngsters were evaluated again for anxiety and depression and 87 were judged as having developed depression. Eight reported significant

Dr. Kimberly Young has likened Internet addiction to addictive syndromes similar to impulse-control disorders on the Axis I Scale of the DSM. She also developed the Internet Addiction Diagnostic Questionnaire (IADQ) to diagnose the disorder. Meeting five of the following symptoms were considered necessary to be diagnosed.1. Do you feel preoccupied with the Internet (think about previous online activity or anticipate next online session)?2. Do you feel the need to use the Internet with increasing amounts of time in order to achieve satisfaction?3. Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop Internet use?4. Do you feel restless, moody, depressed, or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop Internet use? 5. Do you stay online longer than originally intended?6. Have you jeopardized or risked the loss of significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of the Internet?7. Have you lied to family members, therapist, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with the Internet?8. Do you use the Internet as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, depression)?Other Symptoms Include:• Failed attempts to control behavior• Heightened sense of euphoria while involved in computer and Internet activities• Neglecting friends and family• Neglecting sleep to stay online• Being dishonest with others• Feeling guilty, ashamed, anxious, or depressed as a result of online behavior• Physical changes such as weight gain or loss, backaches, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome • Withdrawing from other pleasurable activities

Cyber Bully Warnings! Cyber bullies are people on the internet who try to hurt other people emotionally. Cyber bullying can often lead to stress, depressing feelings and even suicide. Avoiding cyber bullies can be really hard. If a cyber bully ever approaches your way, don't let their nasty talks get to you. You know that you're a great person. If a cyber bully ever tries to hurt you, tell someone immediately. Sure cyber bullying can be depressing sometimes, but it's important to keep faith in yourself. Never ever commit suicide because you've been cyber bullied. Cyber bullies are really people in real life who's afraid to speak up and is lonely. If you ever run across a cyber bully, ignore them. Don't even talk to them.

In findings that will worry parents across America, researchers said going online was such a compulsion for some High School students that withdrawing could cause serious medical and psychological consequences.

Researchers found that one in every 25 teens had 'problematic Internet use' - and these students were most likely to report serious problems when not online.

Asian and Hispanic students were most likely to qualify as problematic users --

What are the warning signs of Internet addiction? Preoccupation with the Internet.  (Thoughts about previous on-line activity or anticipation of the next on-line session.) Use of the Internet in increasing amounts of time in order to achieve satisfaction. Repeated, unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop Internet use. Feelings of restlessness, moodiness, depression, or irritability when attempting to cut down use of the Internet. On-line longer than originally intended. Jeopardized or risked loss of significant relationships, job, educational or career opportunities because of Internet use. Lies to family members, therapists, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with the Internet. Use of the Internet is a way to escape from problems or to relieve a dysphoric mood.  (e.g. Feelings of hopelessness, guilt, anxiety, depression.)

  Internet addiction is described as an impulse control disorder which does not involve the use of a drug and is similar to pathological gambling.

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Internet Addiction Disorder, a psychophysiological disorder involving tolerance; withdrawal symptoms; affective disturbances; and interruption of social relationships, is a presenting problem that is becoming more common in society as on-line usage increases by the day.

To be diagnosed as having Internet Addiction Disorder, a person must meet certain criteria as prescribed by the American Psychiatric Association. Three or more of these criteria must be present at any time during a twelve month period: 1. Tolerance: This refers to the need for increasing amounts of time on the Internet to achieve satisfaction and/or significantly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of time on the Internet. 2. Two or more withdrawal symptoms developing within days to one month after reduction of Internet use or cessation of Internet use (i.e., quitting cold turkey) , and these must cause distress or impair social, personal or occupational functioning. These include: psychomotor agitation, i.e. trembling, tremors; anxiety; obsessive thinking about what is happening on the Internet; fantasies or dreams about the Internet; voluntary or involuntary typing movements of the fingers. 3. Use of the Internet is engaged in to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms. 4. The Internet is often accessed more often, or for longer periods of time than was intended. 5. A significant amount of time is spent in activities related to Internet use ( e.g., Internet books, trying out new World Wide Web browsers, researching Internet vendors, etc.). 6. Important social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced because of Internet use. 7. The individual risks the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of excessive use of the Internet. In recent research, other characteristics have been identified. Th

e first is feelings of restlessness or irritability when attempting to cut down or stop Internet use. The second is that the Internet is used as a way of escaping problems or relieving feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety or depression. The third characteristic is that the user lies to family members or friends to conceal the extent of involvement with the Internet. And, finally, the user returns repeatedly despite excessive fees (Egger & Rauterberg, 1996).

Awful things Internet addiction has done to me:- Internet addiction has made me a very lazy and unwilling fellow who would usually take 2-3 hours to start the day off.- Internet addiction has caused me great amounts of stress and anxiety. (For example, I have lots of pornographic material scattered around my two laptops and I start getting paranoid when people ask me if they can use my computer to check something.) The death of a loved one 2 years ago only made my situation worse.- Internet addiction has prevented me from exercising and staying fit.- Internet addiction has put lots of strain into my eyes, from constantly staring at the monitor for about 6+ hours a day. (Not natural.)- Internet addiction has made me less social with my friends and made me feel more impatient (like when I would wait longer than 5-10 minutes for a friend on an instant messenger program to respond to me and I'd start wondering if I said something that could have offended them or if I am bugging them too much).- Internet addiction has turned me away from playing some of my favorite video game consoles (I grew up with the Super Nintendo and still have it). Thankfully, at least I never got into MMORPGs or any other online game services. I mainly emulated.- Internet addiction has made me very obsessed with atheism and religion. Of course I am glad to no longer subscribe to any organized religion (I hold no grudges against those who do, just the ones that try to shove their beliefs down others' throats because I find it very inhumane), but I don't want to continue obsessing over it; it makes me feel very depressed. I don't want this.- Internet addiction has made me very untidy. Currently I have 4 stacks of plates, 2 stacks of cereal bowls, 3 stacks of 8 oz glass cups, and 2-3 forks and knives and 7 spoons. I have bits of shed hair (I have long, frizzy hair) here and there on the carpet and it is quite embarrassing!- Internet addiction has made me procrastinate on class assignments and fail school indubitably. - Internet addiction has wasted so much of my precious, precious time that could have been used for other things that are more worthwhile and productive. In fact, my one-year-and-a-half Facebook addiction has worsened me to the point where I just had to delete my account once and for all.- Internet addiction has made me forget about the usefulness and convenience of doing real-life alternatives, such as mailing out letters/post cards to friends instead of just refreshing my e-mail inbox every 1 hour when I am awake, or listening to my massive cassette/CD/record collection instead of just sitting around my computer listening to MP3s.So you see, I am in a SERIOUS need of a change! I am sick and tired of living this sad and pathetic lifestyle. The stupidity of sites like 4chan inspired me to leave the Internet behind.

Internet addiction sounds like a punch line. But it ruined my brother's life. Print Email Comments (Page 1 of 3) Last Friday I walked into the most recent inpatient Internet addiction treatment center to open in the United States and asked a really dumb question. "Do you have Wi-Fi here?" I bumbled, prompting an awkward smile from the man who opened the door at the Fall City, Wash.-based ReSTART Internet Addiction Recovery Program. It was the equivalent of walking into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and asking for a single-malt Scotch.It was also revealing. I hadn't checked my e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter accounts for nearly 14 hours by the time I showed up at the wooded five-acre retreat, situated with some irony less than 15 miles from Microsoft Corp.'s Redmond headquarters. That drought had begun to eat away at me enough that by the time I walked through the door I was so fixated on plugging back in that my brain was able to push past the blatant insensitivity it took to ask such a question.Most of my friends smirked when I told them I was heading up to Washington to write a story about the newly opened center, which sits on a wooded parcel of property adorned with a 3,500-square-foot craftsman house, Western red cedar treehouses, chicken coops, and goat pens. We all kid about being hooked on Facebook, but it doesn't really seem like the kind of thing anybody would need to drop $14,000 (the cost of a 45-day stay at ReSTART) on to quit cold turkey. The fact is, though, I have believed for some time now that Internet addiction is a very real phenomenon. And not just because I've read stories about the well-established and at-capacity treatment centers in China and South Korea, or because I know antisocial kids who routinely put in 14-hour shifts playing World of Warcraft. Internet addiction is the reason my 36-year-old brother has been homeless for most of his adult life.I hadn't really understood this until recently, because having a homeless brother always terrified me too much to make any real effort to understand why Andrew could never get his life together. A couple of years ago I decided I'd protected myself from this depressing truth long enough. I contacted my brother and said I wanted to spend a day with him, from the moment he awoke to the time he went to sleep, to see what his life was like. I approached the trip with a journalist's curiosity and method—a pen and steno pad—but it was obviously going to be a personal expedition.Andrew, who is four years older than I am, sleeps in a roomy tent, atop three mattresses he's acquired from one place or another, between a set of railroad tracks and Oregon State Highway 99, in a clearing ringed by blackberry bushes. He lives most days the same way. He gets up when he feels like it, walks to the local Grocery Outlet, and uses food stamps to buy a microwaveable meal. Then he treks over to the local soup kitchen and enjoys a free lunch, answering the greetings of his other homeless pals, who speak to me highly of the obese, bearded man they call "Ace."When the rest of his buddies head off to the park to suck down malt liquor or puff weed, Andrew eyes a different fix at the Oregon State University computer lab, which is open to the public. He'll spend the next 10 hours or so there, eyes focused on a computer screen, pausing only to heat up that microwaved meal. He plays role-playing videogames such as World of Warcraft, but he's also got a page of RSS feeds that makes my head spin, filled with blogs he's interested in, news Web sites, and other tentacles into cyberspace. He goes "home" only when the lab closes. He's recently acquired a laptop, after much fundraising from sympathetic relatives, so he can now stay connected day and night, if he can find an open Wi-Fi hot spot.Through the day I peppered him with questions, all meant to answer this one: why had he failed to make something of himself, and I hadn't? It was a complicated question, but it

Place reasonable limits on computer usage.

Adhere to your imposed computer usage limits.

Consider why you are using the computer if your usage becomes excessive. Boredom, anxiety, and depression

1 Lack of social interaction. Using the computer for pleasure, gratification, or relief from stress. Feeling irritable and out of control or depressed when not using it. Spending increasing amounts of time and money on hardware, software, magazines, and computer-related activities. Neglecting work, school, or family obligations. Lying about the amount of time spent on computer activities. Risking loss of career goals, educational objectives, and personal relationships. Failing at repeated efforts to control computer use.