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Internet Addiction: A mental disorder?

Athenian200

Protocol Droid
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I'm sort of addicted, but I don't think it's hurting me. If I couldn't go online anymore, I wouldn't go crazy or anything... I'd just miss having that resource readily available.

It's like if you get used to having a store nearby that you can get to in less than a minute, but then they tear it down and you now have to do without what was sold there, or have to go much further to get it (say, drive an hour or two). It's just frustrating, not horrible or unacceptable.

I don't think you can consider yourself addicted to the Internet unless it actually hurts you a lot physically or financially.
 

swordpath

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I don't think you can consider yourself addicted to the Internet unless it actually hurts you a lot physically or financially.

Psychologically it can harm you and incapacitate one to a degree socially.
 

Venom

Babylon Candle
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yes. its real.
 

Snow Turtle

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May 28, 2007
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I'd say I'm fairly addicted to the internet. I don't display any severe problems but I've noticed...

a) When I run out of venues on the internet... There's a sense of 'What do I do now?' that is quickly fufilled by browsing but still the fact that there is a lull in excitement speaks volume for me.

b) It's so easy to access the internet. If there's one nearby I will be online unless I have something else to do.

I think the biggest problem with internet addiction is that it can very easily create this sense of need to do something. That life is constantly go-go-go. With the internet it's much harder to quieten the mind and just relax and do nothing. I suspect that most self-identified addicts have trouble with doing nothing and thinking about nothing.
 

raz

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When I was in my depression and spent 6 years of my life online instead of going to high school, getting a job, making friends, etc, I'd say an internet addiction was part of it. That world was just...better than real life.

Though, now, I don't have nearly enough stuff to do on the net anymore. I randomly browse forums for MBTI, Heroes, Kyle XY, Dawson's Creek, Power Rangers, Pokemon and Dragonball Z. I've kept up with a litter of TV shows by having the internet rather than a TV. Though, since I don't have a TV in my room, I'm not as culturally enlightened as other people as I don't really go to the news websites at all. I wouldn't really know about the recession if I didn't hear people talking about it ALL day at work. I'd be playing online games a lot more if my laptop didn't suck. I was wanting to build a new gaming PC, but I bought a GPS instead so that put me back.

The thing is that forums are like an introvert's heaven for socializing. I'm not sure about being able to go 3-4 weeks without the internet. Where do you draw the line? What about students? We use the internet for assignments. I'll make a note of that site and print it out to bring to my psychology class Tuesday. We're doing mental disorders right now, so this is good timing. :D
 

ajblaise

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I don't know about all of you guys, but my work requires me to be on the internet, so I have a real excuse.
 

Lauren Ashley

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I don't know about all of you guys, but my work requires me to be on the internet, so I have a real excuse.

Which causes one to wonder if that is why you chose the job in the first place.

It's okay panda. We all have our issues.
 

rhinosaur

Just a statistic
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Apr 23, 2007
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I think internet addiction is no different than any other psychological addiction. I struggle with it sometimes -- find myself sitting at my computer reading a forum, completely bored, but with lots of things IRL that I could be / should be doing.
 

raz

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I think internet addiction is no different than any other psychological addiction. I struggle with it sometimes -- find myself sitting at my computer reading a forum, completely bored, but with lots of things IRL that I could be / should be doing.

It's called being a P. It's okay, Rhinosaur.
 

ajblaise

Minister of Propagandhi
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Which causes one to wonder if that is why you chose the job in the first place.

It's okay panda. We all have our issues.

Yeah it's not that bad, this issue has to compete with other issues of mine, so it's not as consuming.
 

raz

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Nov 11, 2008
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So why are you here then so often, J? :D

I'm so efficient that I get so much done in so little time. I wish I knew why those P's have so little time. They should learn to manage it better.
 

zago

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Jun 25, 2008
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I think I might be addicted, and I want to do something about it. At my worst, I spend time at message boards like these hitting the "new posts" link over and over, constantly frustrated with the lack of appealing posts. And this is how I've spent much of my time ... It needs to stop.
 

prplchknz

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Jun 11, 2007
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I find with the internet if it's around I'll use it, if it's not then I go do something else, it's not like I can't live without it. Also I tend to prefer to interact in real life more so if I have people I want to see I'll choose them over the internet.
 

01011010

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Jun 22, 2008
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Addiction is a mental disorder. It doesn't matter what the attention goes to, the mechanism is the same.
 
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