The main five types of Internet addiction. material on the topic

With the development of information technology, which in itself is an undoubted blessing, man is faced with a new problem.

It turned out that the Internet, created to help and serve as a tool in work or study, can itself enslave and drag a person down to the point of cruel dependence on the World Wide Web.

Many people underestimate the scale of this problem, and this is completely in vain, because even psychologists and doctors have long sounded the alarm. Internet addiction is already practically on the list of mental illnesses, and its severe form is subject to treatment along with alcoholism and drug addiction.

Types of Internet addiction

There are several types of Internet addiction. Currently the most common are the following:

— Internet addiction to social networks.

This type of addiction is more common than others. It mainly affects teenagers. The development of addiction to social networks is due to the fact that teenagers, due to embarrassment and lack of self-confidence, find it much easier to communicate on the Internet rather than in the real world. It is also easier for them to express themselves and express their ideas online.

— Addiction to online games.

Online gambling addiction. In essence, it is no different from gambling addiction in real life. However, any user can get into an online casino, regardless of social status and even age, which makes this type of addiction especially dangerous.

An obsessive craving for watching porn films and having virtual sex is also considered an addiction. At first glance, this type of hazard does not pose a danger. But, in fact, quite a lot of families break up precisely because one of the spouses is addicted to pornography, which is quite easy to find on the Internet.

Mental disorder of the new millennium

Psychotherapists are increasingly worried, equating Internet addiction to cravings for alcohol or drugs. Studies of Internet addicts have shown that uncontrolled long-term use of the World Wide Web leads to changes in brain functioning. Such a person is very impulsive, he loses the ability to work intellectually and learn, and is unable to think analytically.

Impaired thinking and memory are not the only negative manifestations of this addiction. A person gradually loses real communication skills and may even become antisocial. Skype, email, and online shopping are crowding out real friendly and business communication from a person’s life. He experiences stress from communicating with new people, gradually withdraws into himself, and loses interest in study or work. He also has big problems with eating and sleeping. Sometimes internet addiction can cause suicide.

Internet addiction is dangerous not only due to the emergence of social and psychological problems, but also the development of specific physical diseases: vision problems, dry eyes, carpal tunnel syndrome, sleep disorders. In addition, it is manifested by diseases of the spine and joints, cardiovascular pathologies, headaches, and other diseases.

Excessive spending of time on the Internet leads to the destruction of relationships in a modern family (between husband and wife, children and parents), and sometimes even its collapse. All of the above makes it obvious that Internet addiction is a problem in modern society that requires increasingly close attention.

Where is the line between normality and pathology?

Many of us experience addiction from time to time. Some of us occasionally drink alcohol, some smoke cigarettes, and some gamble or use the Internet. But it becomes an addiction when it begins to become the meaning of life.

That is, a person stops thinking about his social and everyday problems, he is not interested in the future, there are no life plans, his every day is devoted only to this specific addictive realization. The addict puts off important things for himself until later, and a comfortable psychological state is achieved through addictive implementation here and now.

Content:

1. Psychological prerequisites for the formation of cyber addiction.
2. The main types of cyber addiction.
3. Clinical picture.
4. The impact of cyber addiction on health.
5. How to treat internet addiction:

5.1. Principles of psychotherapy. 5.2. Medication correction.

Abroad, people started talking about the problem of Internet addiction back in the mid-1990s. It was then, against the backdrop of general computerization, that psychologists drew attention to dramatic changes in the behavior of people spending most of their time in virtual reality. First of all, this affected the most vulnerable and psychologically immature part of the population - youth and adolescents. Now the issue of overcoming Internet addiction has become even more acute - not a single modern person can imagine life without a smartphone, tablet, laptop and other gadgets. But how can you differentiate between the use of new technologies for work or school and a serious addiction that requires treatment? How to recognize the problem in time and prevent its serious consequences?

Signs of Internet addiction

The first sign of your Internet addiction is visiting Internet sites automatically. For example, you start every morning by checking your email, not because you expect an email, but because the process of visiting the site itself gives you pleasure.

In many cases, a person cannot adequately assess how much time he spends online. Therefore, in the case when friends and colleagues constantly say that you spend too much time on the Internet, it is worth thinking about the issue of preventing the development of Internet addiction.

It is also worth thinking about the development of addiction if it has become easier for you to communicate with people not in person, but online, or if you begin to receive exorbitantly high bills for Internet access services.

How to recognize addiction

So, how can you understand that Internet addiction has already taken hold of you or your household, is there any reason for concern? There are some signs by which you can determine whether the power of the insidious Internet web over a person is really strong.

Firstly, you prefer wandering around the Internet to any other type of recreation and pastime. Often the time spent at the computer flies by so quickly that when you wake up, you are surprised to realize that instead of the planned 15 minutes, two whole hours have already passed. After connecting to the World Wide Web, unfulfilled tasks began to mercilessly accumulate in your home, and your productivity decreased significantly. If there is no Internet, you don’t know what to do with yourself, depression or irritability appears.

Internet addiction also manifests itself in the fact that the World Wide Web takes up not only a lot of your time, but also money, which is spent on purchasing more and more powerful computer equipment and paying for online purchases.

You take the loss of ratings on various sites to heart, you are painfully worried about a low rating of a photo or being removed from friends on social networks. I am constantly haunted by an obsessive desire to check my email, look at my favorite forum or Facebook page. If you find yourself with the above symptoms, it’s time to start fighting for independence from the Internet.

A person who is in the last stage of addiction is no longer able to exist in real life, outside of his cozy virtual world. He stops working, taking care of himself, and even forgets to eat. Live communication completely disappears, friends and family fade into the background. Several years ago, America was shocked by a case when a woman, carried away by a computer game, forgot about her own child - a 3-year-old girl died of hunger and thirst.

Where to start treatment?

In order to get rid of this addiction, it is necessary to recognize its existence, otherwise all methods will be unsuccessful. The first step in treatment should be the following experiment: record the time you spent on the Internet during the day, and then count how much time you spent working and searching for really useful information. This is the time you should devote to the Internet during the day. Thanks to a strictly regulated norm, you will plan your day more rationally and make the most productive use of the time spent on the Internet.

You can also ask someone to block access to the site that you most often visit aimlessly. Or, which is a radical measure, turn off Internet access. Sometimes pets help fight addiction because they constantly require attention. This method is also suitable for those who spend a lot of time on the Internet due to loneliness.

If nothing helps you and Internet addiction progresses, you need to seek help from a psychotherapist or psychiatrist. Only a specialist will help you find out the reason for the development of addiction and suggest ways out of the current situation.

We also recommend reading the article about stuttering treatment.

Mental disorder or habit?

Psychiatrists still do not classify Internet addiction as a real mental disorder that meets the ICD-10 criteria. Many doctors generally doubt that Internet addiction really exists, or do not consider it harmful. Why is it dangerous?

Dependence (addiction) is a constant obsessive need to use something or someone, which is accompanied by increasing tolerance (increasingly large doses are required), and has pronounced psychological and physiological signs. Addictive behavior is an obsessive activity aimed at satisfying a need. Previously, alcoholism and drug addiction were classified as addictions, but now overeating, gambling, excessive religiosity, etc. are also considered addictions.

With the advent of the Internet, psychotherapists started talking about a new form of addictive behavior - Internet addiction. Although this addiction does not have a physiological component, the psychological component is very noticeable. Modern researchers of the problem define in different ways what constitutes Internet addiction.

Here are some definitions:

• an ineradicable need to constantly be on the Internet, non-chemical addiction, accompanied by certain psychological symptoms, social maladjustment;
• mental disorder with behavioral problems, low self-control and stress, displacing real life;
• obsessive constant desire to connect to the Internet in “offline” mode, as well as the inability to exit the Internet in “online” mode.

Psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg, who first described this addiction, identified the following main signs of the disorder:

The first sign: being online is accompanied by distress (a painful, stressful negative state).

The second sign: being online lowers a person’s status (psychological, physical, interpersonal, social or economic).

The prevalence of this addiction is similar to the prevalence of gambling. Today it makes up about ten percent of all Internet users. Internet addiction develops faster than any other addiction: drug addiction, smoking, gambling or alcohol. It takes approximately six months to develop a stable addiction.

Ways to solve the problem

It is possible to use auto-training techniques, such as meditation, breathing control, and also the use of Internet blocking programs.[21]

In the United States, the leading specialist in the study of Internet addiction is now considered [ source not specified 1918 days

]Kimberly Young[en] is a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford (USA), author of the famous book “Caught in the Net”, translated into many languages . She is also the founder of the Center for On-Line Addiction. The center, established in 1995, advises mental health clinics, educational institutions and corporations that are faced with Internet abuse. The center freely distributes information and techniques for freeing yourself from Internet addiction.

Clinical picture

You can suspect a cyber addiction in a loved one based on the following symptoms:

• obsessive desire to constantly check email, messages in instant messengers, social networks;
• people spend more and more time online, often miss work, university, deceive relatives, employers
• neglect of one’s own hygiene and the interests of family members for the sake of playing an Internet game, surfing, watching the news feed, etc. (there are cases when, while online, people forget even about food and drink);
• problems with work (due to frequent absenteeism and lateness, there is a high probability of dismissal), if we are talking about a teenager or student, academic performance decreases;
• complete loss of interest in everything around you, all real experiences are replaced by virtual ones;
• The amount of money spent on purchases or replenishing an account in an online game account is constantly increasing;
• time control problem.

If for some reason (even the most banal: temporary lack of electricity, gadget battery discharge, technical problems with the provider, etc.) there is no Internet, the addict begins to experience a kind of “withdrawal.”
Typically, such a “withdrawal syndrome” is accompanied only by psycho-emotional disorders: depressive mood, bouts of irritability, overt aggression towards others. The patient tries to correct the situation by any means (overloads the router or modem several times, looks for an outlet/charger, calls the provider’s support service). In some cases, psychosomatics are also “connected”: sweating, dizziness, headache, attacks of nausea, tremors, involuntary finger movements reminiscent of typing on a keyboard, etc. All symptoms disappear as soon as the addict is able to connect to the network again.

Internet addicts

According to various studies, about 10% of users worldwide today are Internet addicts [ source not specified 1918 days

].
Despite the lack of official recognition of the problem in Russia, Internet addiction is already being taken into account in many countries around the world [ source not specified 1918 days
]. For example, in Finland, young people with Internet addiction are given a deferment from the army[11]. China in 2008 announced that it was going to become a pioneer in the world in officially recognizing this addiction as a disease, and was the first to open clinics[12]. However, in Chinese institutions they use drill training and electric shock; note savage treatment methods that led to the death of teenage patients[13][14].

In 2009, the first clinic dedicated to the treatment of “Internet addiction” opened in the United States[15].

The impact of cyber addiction on health

In addition to the formation of mental disorders, Internet addiction does not have the best effect on general health. The patient suffers from:

• curvature of the spine, which negatively affects cerebral circulation and heart function;
• carpal tunnel syndrome: manifests itself in the form of severe pain in the wrist joint due to muscle strain
• blurred vision;
• headaches;
• sleep disorders;
• consequences of abuse of stimulants (medicines, coffee, energy drinks);
• digestive disorders, vitamin deficiency, anemia caused by irregular nutrition, in addition, the addict usually eats what is easier to prepare - extremely harmful fast food.

Addiction also has a negative impact on cognitive functions, which is especially noticeable in adolescents. The ability to concentrate decreases, it becomes difficult to remember and assimilate new information - all thoughts are focused exclusively on virtual life.

Lack of sleep, decreased physical activity, lack of long walks in the fresh air, poor diet and a number of other factors lead to decreased immunity. Deteriorating health, lack of real communication in the workplace, with peers, and difficulties in personal life only aggravate existing mental problems. The addict is increasingly immersed in virtual reality, where he can create the appearance of well-being and transform into almost any fantasy character in the game.