Excessive Internet Use is Linked to Depression

[Such Irony]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/uol-eiu020110.php


Thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

Excessive Internet use is linked to depression



People who spend a lot of time browsing the net are more likely to show depressive symptoms, according to the first large-scale study of its kind in the West by University of Leeds psychologists.
Researchers found striking evidence that some users have developed a compulsive internet habit, whereby they replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites. The results suggest that this type of addictive surfing can have a serious impact on mental health.
Lead author Dr Catriona Morrison, from the University of Leeds, said: "The internet now plays a huge part in modern life, but its benefits are accompanied by a darker side.
"While many of us use the internet to pay bills, shop and send emails, there is a small subset of the population who find it hard to control how much time they spend online, to the point where it interferes with their daily activities."
These 'internet addicts' spent proportionately more time browsing sexually gratifying websites, online gaming sites and online communities. They also had a higher incidence of moderate to severe depression than non-addicted users.
"Our research indicates that excessive internet use is associated with depression, but what we don't know is which comes first – are depressed people drawn to the internet or does the internet cause depression?
"What is clear, is that for a small subset of people, excessive use of the internet could be a warning signal for depressive tendencies."
Incidents such as the spate of suicides among teenagers in the Welsh town of Bridgend in 2008 led many to question the extent to which social networking sites can contribute to depressive thoughts in vulnerable teenagers. In the Leeds study, young people were more likely to be internet addicted than middle-aged users, with the average age of the addicted group standing at 21 years.
"This study reinforces the public speculation that over-engaging in websites that serve to replace normal social function might be linked to psychological disorders like depression and addiction," added Dr Morrison. "We now need to consider the wider societal implications of this relationship and establish clearly the effects of excessive internet use on mental health."
This was the first large-scale study of Western young people to consider the relationship between internet addiction and depression. The internet use and depression levels of 1,319 people aged 16-51 were evaluated for the study, and of these, 1.2% were classed as being internet addicted. While small, this figure is larger than the incidence of gambling in the UK, which stands at 0.6%. The research will be published in the journal Psychopathology on 10th February.

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For more information
Dr Catriona Morrison is available for interview. Please contact Hannah Isom in the University of Leeds press office on 0113 343 4031 or email h.isom@leeds.ac.uk.
A full copy of the paper entitled, 'The relationship between excessive internet use and depression: a questionnaire-based study of 1,319 young people and adults,' is available on request.
Notes to editors
1. Dr Catriona Morrison is a Senior Lecturer in Experimental Psychology and Director of Learning and Teaching for the Institute of Psychological Sciences at the University of Leeds.
2. The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise showed the University of Leeds to be the UK's eighth biggest research powerhouse. The University is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University's vision is to secure a place among the world's top 50 by 2015. http://leeds.ac.uk
3. The University of Leeds Institute of Psychological Sciences received a rating of "Excellent" for the quality of its teaching in the latest QAA Subject Review, and was ranked 11th out of 76 in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. http://www.psyc.leeds.ac.uk/

 

[Thalassa]

It's interesting to me that they lump porn addicts and gambling addicts in with the rest of us losers who hang out in chat rooms and on forums. Sure, porn addicts and compulsive gamblers are depressed.

I don't know about anyone else. It depends on if you spend those hours playing WoW or just randomly checking into more socially active places while you still do things like take walks outside and talk to people IRL.

I feel like I have authority to speak on this as I spend a disproportionate amount of time on-line, partly due to the types of work I do.

 

[Thalassa]

It also occurs to me that people who are already predisposed to conditions like social anxiety, panic disorder, depression, and schizoid or schizotypal personality disorder would be drawn to be on the Internet, so like...the conditions are pre-existing.

 

[ReflecTcelfeR]

Some are concerned with me being depressed... I don't know if the internet is the source. It was a thought I had once, but dismissed. Perhaps I should reinvestigate. I wouldn't say I'm an addict. I do love this website, because of the interaction and the knowledge, but this and facebook are really the only constant sites I visit. I dunno, I could see it.

 

[Amethyst]

I can see the correlation. I know when I go into my depressive states it's usually because I'm on the computer for too long trying to avoid people I don't want to talk to, but I really want to interact with others around me, but unfortunately that's hard to do. Some people just seem, unfriendly and antisocial, and all of my friends are always out of town.

It also occurs to me that people who are already predisposed to conditions like social anxiety, panic disorder, depression, and schizoid or schizotypal personality disorder would be drawn to be on the Internet, so like...the conditions are pre-existing.

Which is a real good reason as to why you shouldn't take many people seriously on the interwebz.

 

[Kasper]

It also occurs to me that people who are already predisposed to conditions like social anxiety, panic disorder, depression, and schizoid or schizotypal personality disorder would be drawn to be on the Internet, so like...the conditions are pre-existing.

Exactamundo. Does depression draw people to spend time the internet or does spending time on the internet lead to depression.

 

[Thalassa]

I can see the correlation. I know when I go into my depressive states it's usually because I'm on the computer for too long trying to avoid people I don't want to talk to, but I really want to interact with others around me, but unfortunately that's hard to do. Some people just seem, unfriendly and antisocial, and all of my friends are always out of town.

I love the Internet though because not only does it keep me in touch with people from other times in my life (high school bff, family back East, etc.) even from the very beginning it opened up this whole new world to me of PEOPLE WHO WERE LIKE ME...people who like to read and argue about shit. I was on LiveJournal for years way before I ever came to this forum, and at times, at fucked up times in my life, the most interesting people I know that I had things in common with began as Internet friends (or always have just been Internet acquaintences).

It sucks to be surrounded by morons and people who don't understand you. I've also met quite a few guys I've gone out with through being on-line.

 

[strawberries]

you kids get outside and play!

 

[Amethyst]

I love the Internet though because not only does it keep me in touch with people from other times in my life (high school bff, family back East, etc.) even from the very beginning it opened up this whole new world to me of PEOPLE WHO WERE LIKE ME...people who like to read and argue about shit. I was on LiveJournal for years way before I ever came to this forum, and at times, at fucked up times in my life, the most interesting people I know that I had things in common with began as Internet friends (or always have just been Internet acquaintences).

It sucks to be surrounded by morons and people who don't understand you. I've also met quite a few guys I've gone out with through being on-line.

Haha, yeah the internet is my real parent. It basically raised me.

Which makes me think, I think the reasons vary, sort of like the chicken and the egg thing. I think some people dealing with depression based on their own social surroundings discover something like the internet which provides escape from their socially-based depression (if you even want to call it that), while others who enjoy living their life on the internet at first become depressed because...well, they're living their life on the internet. Life is not meant to be lived in such a way, and unconsciously they probably know that, and there also could be some other factors causing the depression as well. It's hard to say what's more prevalent.

 

[Synapse]

Ha its my way of being translatable and relateable in some way, although I lives in a hammock so that would account for all those internet times tattooed on my breastplate. I can't vouch for the depression and internet thing. Internets kept me sane, life hasn't. I was way out of it before the internet happened, me old school geeker boy.

 

[Arthur Schopenhauer]

I live on the internet, I guess. It's like a giant book, a medium of infinite thought and information, almost...
Fantasy is better than reality in some ways.

I like books.

 

[Sunny Ghost]

i don't think the two are always linked... but sometimes, yes.

i wouldn't say that i'm depressed. i go through periods where i just get tired of spending a lot of face time with other people... and with it being winter, i'm less inclined to want to go walking or hiking or do any of those sorts of outside activities. i enjoy spending time on the internet to learn about various interests of mine... and at the moment i'm back to mbti again.

 

[KDude]

Exactamundo. Does depression draw people to spend time the internet or does spending time on the internet lead to depression.

Eh, I've had things I've been struggling with for a long awhile. So no.. it's not the internet in my case. I could see how it could be for others though.

The only thing I don't like about my internet usage.. if I think about it.. is that I don't buy things in brick and mortar stores. I used to drive around and check more places out. Either way, I've been kind of solitary, but at least I was doing a little more before.

 

[sleuthiness]

Hurry! Release all the information so people can simply continue their potentially life-corroding habits.

Depression's just a blanket term used by people with higher degrees to put all the different people in one convenient pit (puts the pills in the basket).

I'll probably listen if computer overusage is strongly linked to cancer, but am I concerned about losing my ability to communicate with others? No. What's surfed goes towards improving efficiency or for picking up useless, sometimes random ideas and fragments. Also developing this "non-attachment" that's apparently what all e5s need to reach the highest chira (referring to that Indian head-heart-gut flower bs).

Kids will always find shit to escape from abusive parents, school, and their own deluded, possibly paranoid whims, whether it's Myspace or drinking away the pain with soda. Better than peeling the skin off their face.

We know that adults read in 2010, but do they comprehend? Or too busy fingering their assholes catching up with American Idol on youtube? That's the question. If a moron like me can call this study out, you'd think it could get across. Change the world.

Like waving your dick over a flame.

 

[Eckhart]

Eh, couldn't it be just as well that people who are depressed are more drawn to the internet and not the other way around? I mean, depressed people are often isolated (again you could also pull it the other way around and say isolated people are often depressed) and spend much time alone, thus they have more time to spend on the internet.

This study doesn't show me much.

 

[Salomé]

Whilst teens likely to become addicted to e.g. online games probably have a tendency to be socially isolated and therefore at risk for depression anyway, I would say it's a no-brainer that feeding that addiction leads them to become depressed. Even if only because addictive playing disturbs sleep/eating/exercise patterns to such an extreme degree, and chronically disturbed sleep alone is enough to cause depression.

 

[gromit]

HA. It's definitely connected in my own life.

 

[Totenkindly]

Typically, I think it's usually pre-existing conditions that drive one to use the 'net as a resource to self-medicate, so to speak. It's diverse, easy to use, and allows one to avoid direct social contact.

However, I think self-medicating that way as a long-term solution compounds the problem and will thus deepen the depression.

Look at alcohol, for example. it's not bad to use it as a social outlet from time to time, to alleviate stress, whatever else... but if you start doing it all the time, you actually change your body chemistry, brain capacity, physical health, dependency issues, and whatever else... making it even harder for you to break free.

All that time spent on drinking (or on the 'net) is time not spent finding a better solution to the problems at hand. Being on the 'net can also feel like a passive thing -- you're just feeding your indulgences but not necessarily engaging the world -- and even in the realm of the tangibles, your physical body health will worsen, you won't produce body chemicals produced during physical work/activity that help you feel good, etc.

 

[Queen Kat]

LOL, my father thought I was a computer addict when I was thirteen. I could be without computers, but it was just my way to escape my reality of having mentally unstable parents with a bad marriage, being hated by my peers and having problems with my teachers all the time. A year later, when my problems with my peers and my teachers escalated and got me socially isolated, the depression came. The funny thing is that I wasn't allowed to use internet during that period, because one of my teachers made my father believe that I had put porn of myself online (I asked that teacher to show me the evidence, but he refused because I "already knew" and he sent me off to the school shrink to get me screened for schizophrenia and other severe mental conditions). Right now I use the internet a lot, but my depression is already over for three years now. I usually multitask: I do my homework and I write while I browse the internet. I can't do one thing at a time, if I do I get restless. I also need music and a messy desk, the more stimuli the better. I always have three or more tabs open on the internet. You could see me as an internet addict, but I can be without internet easily. If there's something I'm addicted to, it's writing. I don't think that's related to depression. I did turn my depression in movie script about cannibals. Too bad I lost it. I guess that's what I do with my problems, I crypticize it and make a story out of it.

 

[guesswho]

Ok, I didn't read the post because it was too big.
But based on the title, I can say that a lot of people who surf the internet all the time, do it at night. Not sleeping at night does poke a little with your brain. (this has been tested on myself)