Internet's Lure Ensnares 1 in 8 Americans: Survey

[bridgit]

older survey but the results are said to be in

FRIDAY, Oct. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Research is shedding new light on the often-controversial topic of Internet addiction, suggesting that online usage has significantly disrupted the lives of millions of Americans.

About six percent of people surveyed by Stanford University researchers said their personal relationships have suffered as a result of their Internet use, and nine percent reported actively hiding their online habits at home or at work.

The findings don't confirm that Internet addiction is an actual mental disorder, but they "should start the conversation about the subset of the population for whom the Internet is not so wonderful," said study lead author Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, an assistant clinical professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of Stanford University's Impulse Control Disorders Clinic.

Mental-health specialists have worried about Internet addiction for about a decade, although the condition hasn't become an accepted psychological diagnosis. Some specialist lump it in with "impulse-control" disorders.

"Is Internet addiction a unique mental disorder, or is it just a symptom of another, more 'traditional' type of disorder? Research has yet to determine this," said John Suler, a professor of psychology at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., who began writing about the condition in 1996.

http://health.yahoo.com/news/168032

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. But I'm not addicted! Honest!

I can step away anytime I want!

I just don't feel like stepping away.......:rofl:

[bridgit]

2. hahahaha...

;)

[NightWatcher]

5. I'm not an addict

per K's Choice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whEpTI6Ydb8

It's not a habit, it's cool. I feel alive....
I'm not an addict, well maybe that's a lie

[NightWatcher]

3. what means "disorder"

Just because I always have a DU tab on my desktop mean that I have an addiction? I guess that I also have an addiction to using an indoor toilet.

I do not suffer because of my interest in the net.

[bridgit]

4. now calm down, you don't wanna be that 1 in 8...that's fine, then you don't have to be...

:spray: i use this thing for entering reports & conducting client bizz more than i even come here to witness this stuff :shrug: so it's all good :hi:

[Tektonik]

6. Hmmmm

I wonder how many of these 'addicts' if they didn't have the internet to mess around w/ at work would just end up wasting their time on something else irrelevant to their occupation.

[bridgit]

7. true enough, likely the www is just another enabler of predispositions...

already present :thumbsup: if not that chocolate, sex, running, food, tweaking people; whatever, prolly right 'the beat goes on'

[Kutjara]

8. And I'll bet the therapy community has worked up...

...a lucrative line in treatments for all those new "addicts." Let no behavior go un-pathologized!

[bridgit]

9. oh i know, "Hi...my name is: bridgit. And my compu mouse is being mean to me"...

:)