treatment of internet addiction

here is tips to help you and others to reduce the time you spend on the internet.

• Be a good role model. Manage the Internet and computer use in your own life well.
• Introduce the Internet addict to other people who handle their Internet use sensibly.
• Get your friend involved in non-Internet related interests.
• Talk to your friend about your concerns with their Internet use.
• Support their desire for change if they think they have a problem.
• Encourage them to seek professional counseling

source:

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/internet_cybersex_addiction.htm

Online Poker Addiction

Since I know some friends who play online poker to make money for living. I searched for poker addiction and I found this article about it, which I think it's really interesting. It talks about how online poker getting a real problem among college students.

some interesting quotes from the article:

-"In this summer's World Series of Poker, eight of the nine players who made the final table were 29 or younger. It's also a man's game: Only 3 percent of the 7,319 entrants were women."


-Tom Hall, UCF's director of substance abuse prevention and intervention, said the university has created what it calls peer advocates, students who go back into their communities and discuss health issues, including gambling. There's also a clinic on campus that treats substance abuse and gambling addiction.

But universities have to be careful, he notes.

"One of the things that's always a struggle in any kind of health programming is, how do you balance drawing undue attention to a subject vs. addressing it?" he says.

here is the link to the full article:

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-10-21/news/fl-hk-college-poker-addiction-20101019_1_final-table-poker-tournaments-world-poker-tour

Music and Movies

Sites such as youtube and others offer a free place for people to upload, watch, and listen to music and videos. Many people get addicted to these sites and spend hours and days watching and listening to media uploaded. Sites such as youtube are a common everyday word, any college age or younger generation know it. "Did you see that video?" "Go look at it on youtube."

These sites offer a great service to people, and it is not at all bad if you go to these sites and watch or listen to media. However if you find yourself losing track of time or are constantly on these sites perhaps you have an addiction. Don't put off other things and say you will do them later, do them first before going to these sites, this will help you with your addiction.

The Dark Side of Online Shopping

Compulsive shopping is now more easily achieved and abused with online shopping.  This is a type of internet addiction which, like online gambling, has an offline counterpart. Signs of addiction and compulsion would be that you spend money regardless and you buy things that you most likely do not even need or want and when you try to cut back you suffer withdrawal from not being online and shopping.  A more complete list of symptoms can be found here.

This form of internet addiction can easily lead an individual into serious financial nightmares if not put under control early on.  The reasons that people seem to become addicted to online shopping would be the convenience, they feel as if it is not real money that they are spending, and it can help relieve stress for some individuals when they feel the rush and excitement of buying anything and everything. If you or someone you know seems to exhibit an addiction to online shopping, do your best to control your tendencies or if it is someone you know find ways to help bring them offline more often. If more assistance is required, there is no need to be ashamed in seeking it as any addiction can be rather difficult to deal with.

Who is more addicted to linkedIn, men or women?

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional networking website. This study was conducted to compare males and females using linkedIn and see who are more addicted to it.

The study was based on two findings:

• The ratio of connections that men have to connections that women have.
• The ratio of male members on LinkedIn to female members.
  

The results were interesting. In tobacco industries, where we think that it is male-dominated fields, women were the predominant users. While men were more than women in fields like cosmetics industries, which are most known as female's fields. "Why? LinkedIn suggested the “minority sex has to network harder than the dominant sex to break into those industries.”

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/06/22/are-men-better-than-women-at-online-networking

Lets Check Out Internet Porn

Since we didn't discuss this topic during our presentation I figured that we could explore it a little now in our blog.

Although it is somewhat taboo to talk about, I think most of us know that Internet porn is a big industry and easily accessed online. But, is it really a big problem? Studies have been completed on the topic, however, it has not been researched nearly as much as other addictions.

The signs of Internet pornography addiction are similar to the signs for the other addictions we have talked about on this blog. Here are the two big signs

• Spending exorbitant amounts of time viewing adult material
• Neglecting commitments/relationships to view internet pornography

Watching porn releases dopamine into the brain which gives humans the feeling of happiness or euphoria and which can lead to addictive tendencies. After a while of excessive internet porn use, there will be a drop in dopamine receptors causing a numbed pleasure response. This can make ordinary life seem boring and in extreme case bring on symptoms of depression.

While pornography isn't going away, moderation, as with all things in life, is key to keeping your mind and body healthy.

http://www.sexualrecovery.com/pornography-addiction.php
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cupids-poisoned-arrow/201106/ominous-news-porn-users-internet-addiction-atrophies-brains

On The Line

It seems a lot of people are worried if they are addicted to the internet.There is a difference between using the internet to your advantage and Internet addiction.

The internet provides limitless opportunities for nearly anything to almost everyone. The internet is wonderful and aides us in many ways every single day. By using the internet we can save time, money, and have convenience compared to traditional ways. We don't want you to believe we are saying that using the internet is bad. The internet is a great tool, we are only saying don't let it take over your life. It is so easy to get caught up with all the things that are going on, on the internet. It can be like living another life, because you can be anyone when you are online. You just need to be able to differentiate between your real life and your life online. Your real life and responsibilities should always come first, and don't let something online impede with your life.

Are you an Internet Addict?

I believe there are many people who are addicts to internet that afraid to admit it or do not realize they are really addicts. Being an addict to internet is not something that make you feel ashamed about yourself, because it's not going to change your personality. I think it only makes you less social with people. I would say that I am temporary  addicted to internet . I spend at least 3 hours a day on my laptop, and that's due for two reasons. First, I do not get the time to stay with mt friends because of the conflict of time. when I have no classes my friends have. Second, living in the USA make me spend a lot of time on the internet. when I am home, I spend most of my time working with my father, staying with my family, visiting my grandmother everyday, etc. So I am really not worried about my addiction to the internet because am sure when I graduate and go back home I will have no time to spend on the internet.
My question is who else addicted to the internet and are you worried about that.

How seriously is the United States taking Internet Addiction Disorder?

It has been made apparent that the United States is still debating over whether or not this is a true addiction or not.  They try to apply reasons for why someone would want to be on the internet for prolonged periods of time, which is an approach that can be used for pretty much any addiction.

As stated in our presentation, the American Psychiatric Association, has yet to agree on including it in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  They are currently considering to compromise on adding it in an appendix.

One study has shown that only 1% of college-level introductory and abnormal psychology books even make a reference to Internet addiction.[1]

A more shocking study revealed that while 84% of college counselors "agree" or "strongly agree" that Internet Addiction Disorder is legitimate, 93% have "some, but not sufficient training" or "no training" on diagnosing Internet Addiction Disorder, and 94% have "no training" or "some, but not sufficient training" on the treatment of Internet Addiction Disorder.[2]

So not only is the United States seemingly avoiding the issue and trying to blame other things, they hardly even try to provide any resources on helping people with a heavy dependence on the Internet for non-essential use.

[1], [2]