Computer Addictions / Cyberspace Addictions

Computer and internet addictions are a growing problem. These addictions include surfing the internet, games, gambling, e-mail, texting, twittering, and more. Research says that between five and ten percent of web users have some form of web dependency.

The question is the degree of dependency. Have you lost control over your use?

John Suler, Ph.D. said it best. “It's a problem when your face-to-face life becomes dissociated from your cyberlife. It's healthy when your f2f life is integrated with your cyberlife.”

Maressa Hecht Orzack, a Harvard University psychologist, created the following list of signs and symptoms:

• Using the computer for pleasure, gratification, or relief from stress (to extreme levels)
• Feeling irritable and out of control or depressed when not using it.
• Spending increasing amounts of time and money on hardware, software, magazines, and computer-related activities.
• Neglecting work, school, or family obligations.
• Lying about the amount of time spent on computer activities.
• Risking loss of career goals, educational objectives, and personal relationships.
• Failing at repeated efforts to control computer use.

There are often other problems associated with internet addictions such as skipping meals, repetitive stress injuries, backaches, dry eyes, headaches, and loss of sleep. Internet gambling adds the huge problem of financial loss.

As with other addictions (and even this presents issues, as neither the American Medical Association or the American Psychiatric Association consider computer addiction a valid diagnosis, considering it a variety of obsessive-compulsive disorder), there are generally underlying psychological causes.

These causes might include loneliness, shyness, depression, low self-esteem, boredom, or general dissatisfaction with outside life. The fantasy world of the Internet is an escape from unpleasant feelings or stressful situations. In well over 50% of those seeking treatment for computer addiction, there are also addictions to drugs, alcohol, or nicotine. There are similar symptoms of tolerance and withdrawal.

As is the case with food, computers are a part of our lives—abstinence is, in most cases, not an acceptable goal. Cognitive behavioral therapy, perhaps accompanied by hypnosis, works well in examining and changing thought patterns and establishing workable guidelines. Psychotherapy may be useful in dealing with underlying issues which are triggering the dependency.

Whatever the reasons, or the diagnosis, computer/internet addiction can seriously damage your life.

I encourage you, if you feel you are addicted, to call me, an experienced addictions therapist, to discuss your issues. My phone number is 604.836.6840 or e-mail me

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