Do you feel angry when you can’t go online? Do you panic when you don’t have internet connection? Because we live in the digital age, we’ve all developed relationships with our laptops. As scary as that sounds, it’s true. We have not replaced people with technology entirely and hopefully this won’t happen any time soon. But we tend to spend more and more time in front of our computers engaged in online activity. And this is alarming. But is internet addiction really a mental disorder? Here’s what we know!
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It looks like internet addiction is not yet officially listed in the mental disorders manual. However, psychiatrists say it should be included. Despite this fact, internet addiction is still a very serious public health issue and should be treated as such.
What Is Internet Addiction All About?
Researchers also say that being addicted to the online world has a lot in common with compulsive-impulsive disorder. Some causes are playing video games excessively, watching pornography, emailing and text messaging. We all engage in fun or business-related activities on the web, and it’s usually not considered a problem if we don’t do it obsessively.
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If, for example, you are online at your workplace for 6 to 8 hours and then go home and continue to be online for another 7-8 hours, then it’s a problem. Not only for your health and well-being, but also for your relationships and job.
There are cases of people who are passionate with video games and who, because they are so invested, spend up to 15 hours a day engaged in that game. Video games can have positive effects on your mind just as long as you don’t do it excessively or use them to escape your problems.
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One way to cope with internet addiction is to try and find a self-help group or even start one. You might want to meet people and talk to them offline.
What do you think? How many hours do you spend online every day? Share this with all your online friends to help them out!
