Ah, what’s the new year without another look at “Internet addiction disorder,” especially since it’s being considered for inclusion into the DSM-V? Yours truly is quoted in this one, so at least it brings some balance to the topic. And I do note the tendency for researchers and policy makers working on the DSM-V to want to seem to err on the side of including more disorders according to what little information we have on the upcoming book (the DSM-V is being assembled in secret, so it’s pretty hard to tell what the heck they are doing over there).
What I do know is that the concept of “Internet addiction disorder” remains so muddled and contradictory, it would be a tragedy if this “diagnosis” was legitimized by the DSM-V, while other tragedies — such as TV addiction disorder, book addiction disorder, and socializing addiction disorder — remained unacknowledged (and therefore, ostensibly, untreated).
Read the full article: Once You Click, Can You Quit?
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2 Comments to
“Once You Click, Can You Quit?”
Perhaps the dsm needs to include a “catch-all” for addictive behaviors- rather than a separate diagnosis for each possible addiction- Addiction Disorder NNS? (No Need to Specify…)
Seems to me that many of these “addictions” are either strongly reinforced habits or fall into the category of compulsive behaviors. My vote is to save “addiction” for instances of physical dependence on a substance followed by a withdrawal syndrome when the substance is removed. That does not diminish or demean the problems from habitual or compulsive internet/sex/spending, etc. It just keeps the diagnostic categories clean, no pun intended.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 4 Jan 2009
