One of the favorite things for psychology entrepreneurs is to find a new behavior and throw “addiction” after it, publish a book, establish a weekend workshop series, and rake in the dollars. As the DSM-V is prepared over the next handful of years there will be more and more talk about disorder additions to the book, perhaps one of those being analogous to “internet addiction disorder (IAD).” This page has criteria for IAD, which should be interpreted cautiously since it is a pretty controversial area. My perspective is that spending large amounts of time on the internet does not necessarily constitute an “addiction”, and I question how real the phenomenon of people having withdrawal symptoms from reducing internet use is. I do however think there is an increase in “compulsive internet use” since it is an easily accessible outlet for avoidance behavior. Internet use can certainly interfere with normal life, which should prompt some form of treatment or intervention, but refering to it as an addiction, comparable to alcohol or heroin seems like an innappropriate leap to take at this stage of the game. For a complete overview of the disorder and the controversy, visit the PsychCentral page on the topic.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 26 Sep 2006
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.