an open letter to those who talk about internet "addiction"

[smith2267]

I sit in front of a glowing screen for hours a day.
If you are the average person, so do you. But your behavior is called "normal" and mine has been included as a disorder in the DSM.
All normal means is what most people are doing.
But let's look at it objectively: I am interacting with people.
You are watching honey boo boo and feeling superior because she is more white trash than you are.
Now, are you SURE you want to keep pursuing which of us is engaging in pathological behavior?

 

[76054Pluto]

I think a lot of people spend a lot of time online. There is just loads that you can do and learn about. I love interacting even if its just leaving a comment after watching a music video on youtube. The internet just seems to be perfect for my hobbies which include railways, music, astronomy etc. Sometimes I think back to when there was no internet and it must have been a lot more difficult to get information for school or university studies.

 

[Soup]

Well said, Smith! The DSM's authors seem to be trying to justify & reinforce their own authority & 'raison d'etre' by inventing new mental illnesses by the bucket load. Much depends on what the person is doing on the internet all day, what (if any) harm it is doing them in comparison to the benefit they're deriving. I can see calling it an addiction if a person is missing work, not showing up for important events & losing significant things (like their home, custody of the kids etc.) because of sitting online all day. Also, if the person feels like they wish they were doing other things but is somehow compelled against their will to sit online for prolonged periods.

 

[Dragon's Tooth]

Internet addiction is actually about having negative reactions to loss of the internet, not about a behaviour. My husband is a game/internet addict. He goes through withdrawal when his computer doesn't work or the internet is down. He breaks stuff, he gets super upset and yells and has a massive meltdown. That is what the DSM defines as an addiction. My father in law does he same with smokes.

I have a strong attachment to the internet but if it goes out then I don't melt down I go do something else like read a book, if I have electricity I go into my sewing room etc. My husband just has a massive meltdown.

Luckily he knows he's addicted so he doesn't let it interfere with his work. I do worry however it will affect him as a father because he has pretty much told me that he expects to continue on as he does now when we have kids. Which anyone who has kids will tell you is ridiculous.

Though I have to admit I liked the bit smith wrote about honey boo boo ... my god I can't stand that show ... it is so white trash.

 

[HelloDizzy]

Watching Honey Boo-Boo and feeling superior isn't pathological at all unless you do it repeatedly and compulsively.

I spend a lot of time on the internet because
1. I make all of my money online
2. Most of my friends are online
3. I use the internet as a TV.

If I add this up, it is probably a lot. But it's not like I'm sitting here doing nothing and I also don't go ballistic without it.

 

[King_Oni]

Well, come DSM V there will be something along the lines of "internet addiction".

It's somewhat funny how that's going to work. To me it would be comparable to expecting an employee do use performance enhancing drugs to do the job and then blaming him for substance abuse.

I had a therapist wanting to label me with internet addiction because... I spent so much time online (all whilst I didn't talk about forums; I just was talking about how I obtain my media). But he was a 50+ year old guy who probably only used the internet for email.

Then when I got a younger therapist (the one who diagnosed me) totally wiped that idea of the table since she understood why people use the internet "a lot".

Of course, it's all about behaviour and not use. But to be honest, I do get cranky if my internet doesn'twork. I also get cranky if I run out of figures to paint (or my paint has run dry). I also get cranky when I'm out of bread... is that to say I have an addiction? If so, please, put me in rehab for being addicted to getting through my days.

 

[Daniel]

Ah... TLC... bringing freaks to the masses! I enjoy Strange Addictions myself, and thinking about all the weird stuff that people do, it seems to me that it kind of doesn't matter what the object of the addiction is if the result is that you can't control it and it has a detrimental effect on your life, whether you acknowledge it or not.

I knew a guy who surfed the web all day when he was supposed to be working on the family business, and it all went down the tubes. His wife didn't get how someone could get addicted to the Internet, probably because it's not a "classic" addiction, like being addicted to a substance.

Coffee is one of those things that you can be addicted to and it's socially acceptable, especially if it gives you the energy to be more productive. The actor Dave Foley has a legendary caffeine addiction, drinking 3-4 pots of coffee per day (don't know if he still does). But if it makes you all nuts like Will Ferrell in Kicking and Screaming, that's something else: