If and when there is a terrorist strike that takes out the internet via the electrical grid, just watch how many people go into a panic because they can’t access their digital technologies. That is pathetic and inexcusable. And why do we rationalize and excuse dependency behaviors that cause impairment and upheaval? Oh, I forgot, the apologists and defenders profit from the issue not being identified and treated!

So, yeah, there is the next question. Who is dependent and addicted? The viewer or the bloggists/internet site programmers out of control?

Not directed at you specifically, Dr Grohol, but the question seems to be begged be asked after the last commenter.

I mean, digital technologies are ubiquitous, and digital skills are virtually (pardon the pun) required in order to function in most productive ways in today’s western economies.

Why do we then blame the skilled user for using their skills when everything from buying underwear, to ordering a pizza, to finding a mate, to yes even counseling, is done online?

Is it the individual who is in need of help, or the outmoded, let’s-pathologize-everything mindset that’s in need of a little treatment?

Maybe both.

A better diagnostic category, if one wanted to go down this road, would be “Compulsive behavior disorder” or something along those lines. This correctly identifies the concern and generalizes it across whatever the person is using to an extreme. Cell phones, iPhones, Facebook, TV, books, Internet, porn, heck, even sex, you name it.

I would run away from any clinician that argued about this with a client when they presented with “Internet addiction.” I suspect most clinicians would never do that.

It is assumed, that one of the greatest symptoms of a true addiction is the factor of ‘denial’, right?

And especially addiction counselors are trained to treat the denial. On top of that, addiction counselors are ‘specialists’ in addiction but they don’t know anything else about normal behavior? (I am exaggerating)
‘
So, if I go to a counselor and I tell them I have a serious addiction, then just because I am aware of this, they will already assume I don’t have the addiction at all?

Again, I am exaggerating, but there is much truth to this.

Same with other therapists. if I come in and tell them I am really sick, then it is already assumed that I am not.

I did not address John specifically in my reply. John is not the only one that brings this debatable topic up. Since I know John, I would not expect he would treat any client other than with positive regard and in a completely ethical manner. My comments are about the use of the words themselves- the semantics of the argument- that sometimes when we as professionals protest too much, we are at risk of invalidating the collective clients’ experience.

DeeAnna

Don’t you think anyone who does not necessary believe in Internet addiction knows what you are talking about, and would of course, and obviously treat a client like you propose? Do you really think if a client came in with :”I have an Internet addiction”, that someone like John would respond to this client with a lecture that such an addiction does not exist nor is to be found in the DSM?

I am really baffled, and find your comment slightly insulting. Katrin

The debate about whether or not internet addiction is real is akin to the debate over Battered Woman’s Syndrome, a syndrome that “does not exist” because it is not in the DSM. I guess in this case it is the word “syndrome.” At any rate, the same principle applies; underlying issues and a cluster of symptoms that clued the therapist and the client in to the fact that the woman was being beaten over and over and needed help to get out of her circumstances. Women who have experienced this cycle might again have a better handle than we processionals on what to call it.

My comments are not pro or con this new treatment center- but I do continue to poke my head in with regard to the semantics of what our clients say they experience…

DeeAnna

She is so incredibly gifted on the cello, she plays cello solos in major concert halls and makes people cry, I mean like half of the audience.

After she flunked 10th grade she applied to one of the finest music universities in the world in Vienna, Austria, and she flunked of course all the admitting tests.

But then she played in-front of several judges and she got accepted immediately.

Just for the fun of it, and to the horror of her parents, she insisted on competing in these youth competitions in Holland, Hungary, Austria, and Italy and she won every one.

I am wondering if she needs to go to ‘Cello anonymous’. She only just turned 18? And nobody is pushing her at all.

But half of the time I spend on the computer I am not connected to the Internet, like when I play ‘free cell solitaire’, draw pictures on AppleWorks, write stories, and for printing and editing photography.

One of my problems is insomnia, also, and it’s not because of the computer, but the computer because of the insomnia.

You know, it’s interesting that you say about my commenting so much on Internet addiction because you are right yet I have no interest in it at all. let me think about it. I should mention thought that if you knew where else I write and comment that this internet thing is rather small, and I have only comments about it here. In fact, I don’t think john is that interested in it either, and he writes a lot about it. it’s more the annoying factor.

One time I had a serious apple addiction. I went to the orchard and dug out the apples even in the deep snow.
I had to eat at least 15 apples a day.

skills – The minute “Internet addiction” enters the DSM-V, I’ll be happy to eat my words. Until then, it is like a lot of other theorized disorders that one can treat until one is blue in the face. It doesn’t validate the disorder, however.

I’m going to start a new addiction called “sports addiction,” which happens whenever a spouse spends entire weekends (and weeks) watching their favorite sports, ignoring their partner, chores, even work obligations. Afterward, I’m going to start another disorder called “socializing addiction,” for all those poor souls who can’t seem to stop talking to their friends on the telephone (perhaps it should be called “phone addiction”?) or in person.

And I think I’m coming down with “book addiction,” as sometimes when I start reading a really good book, I stop attending to many of the ordinary activities that define my life. In fact, sometimes I’ve read books for hours and hours every day, not even stopping for sleep!

If you are referring to your “thoughtful comment” as the Sept 9 404PM one, I interpret this as possibly reflective of addiction. You seem to comment on many of the posts here, which could show an excessive interest in the subject matter. But hey, that is my opinion, I could be wrong.

Getting back to the post here at hand, I have surmised that Dr Grohol is refuting the notion of internet addiction as it could impact on attention to this site, much less the value of the medium of the internet itself. I have noted in the past that dependency is a concern irregardless of the subject that causes it, whether it be chemicals, personal behaviors, or other matters that negatively impact not just on the person with the dependency but also those involved with said dependent individual.

So, if internet addiction is a valid concept, should the person spending 10 hours a day in front of the computer/cell phone/other internet access device and not attending to daily needs and inportant functions, isn’t that a problem? And if this behavior is preventing others from accomplishing their needs and goals as the dependent person is not available or interfering with others’ pursuits, isn’t that a problem too?

This medium has benefits, but also detriments. I find those who argue this point probably have at least abuse issues in using the internet if not the poster child for the dependency issue at debate here.

In conclusion, I would hope that Dr Grohol will reply to Dr Rae in some fashion. Hope your weekend is sunnier than mine has been so far.

So, a patient who is admitted to the clinic may be suffering, along with the Internet Addiction, with bipolar, PTSD, divorce, job loss, cancer, and being confined to a wheelchair, and in that case they do address the whole person, and not just the addiction like in AA?