I have just spent eight days cruising the Norwegian Fjords. The most amazing observation, other than the views, was that I had to suffer an intermittent to non-existent signal. What does that mean?

The average person of any age sends or receives around 400 texts per month… while the average teenager processes 3,700 texts each month- Kathryn Borg

It means I was without my mobile, texts, e-mails, and even the news, for most of the eight days. Initially it drove me crazy, but when I got over the fact that I couldn’t contact friends, family and work, I found I had missed the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monza, the last few days of the Paralympics and all the international news.

However, I got over it and it left me with a clear head – the clearest head I have had in years. I wasn’t suffering input from all areas, at all times of the day. I remembered being like this a couple of decades ago, and I liked the feeling. I felt more in control and not driven by the technical pressure that surrounds us constantly.

It could be said that I was feeling the withdrawal symptoms of addiction, an addiction to the internet. Ironically, I have discovered that from next year, internet addiction will be classified as a psychological problem causing depression – one that can be treated with powerful psychotropic drugs, which are already part of many people’s lives.

Bascially, anyone who spends more than 38 hours a week on the internet using Facebook, e-mails or texts on their mobile phones can be defined as an internet addict – and that probably includes most teenagers as well as those of us who have to work on the internet and send e-mails constantly.

Next year, the prestigious American Psychiatric Association (APA) will recognise internet addiction (IA) as a cause of depression. According to the APA’s governing body, IA has “all the characteristics of a compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder, which may be treated with powerful psychotropic drugs”. The “problem” is featured in the next edition of the APA’s standard work: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition DSM-5, which is the reference work for all psychiatrists to be published next year.

So, anyone suspected of being an Internet addict could be prescribed medication, and it won’t be just teenagers who fall into this category. Researcher Tony Dokoupil points out that the “gap between an Internet addict and Joe Public is thin to non-existent. By that definition (of 38 hours’ usage per week) we are all addicts now, many of us by Wednesday afternoon, Tuesday if it’s a busy day.” (Newsweek, July 16, 2012).

This could be a rich harvest for the drugs industry. A survey of regular internet users found that the average time spent online each day was around two hours, although that falls well short of the five hours of an internet addict, with education and information gathering cited as the main usage by 62 per cent.

Most needed to use the internet daily, although 43 per cent admitted they stayed online longer than they anticipated. Overall nearly four per cent of participants could be defined as IA (Ind. Psychiatry. J., 2010). The average person of any age sends or receives around 400 texts per month which is four times the number recorded in 2007, while the average teenager processes 3,700 texts each month.

Jerald Block of the American Journal of Psychiatry (the official journal of the APA), points out that nobody consults a psychiatrist for IA. This is not surprising, as no one, other than a few researchers and academics, even knows it exists as a syndrome or even sees it as a problem.

However, they do seek help for known psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety or aggressive behaviour. In fact, 86 per cent of internet addicts have some other problem (Am. J. Psychiatry, 2008).

IA appears to be seen in association with a range of psychiatric problems, such as mood swings, anxiety and substance abuse, and could involve psychological, neurobiological and cultural factors. Researchers from the University of Iowa say that that is no evidence to suggest that psychotropic medication could help in the long term (CNS Drugs, 2008).

Interestingly, government health officials in South Korea don’t seem to agree. They have already identified 168,000 children and adolescents who require psychotropic drugs for their internet addiction and 50,000 may require hospital care. The Korean Government has trained more than 1,000 counsellors and 190 hospital and special treatment centres have been set up to treat the nation’s internet addicts.

Amazingly, IA has become one of South Korea’s most serious public health issues. Its escalation (which has been put on a par with drug abuse, smoking and obesity) is mysterious, and even those most militantly opposed to internet use can point to only 10 heart attacks suffered by visitors to internet cafes and a murder that was triggered by someone who confused a cyber world game with reality, as possible reasons for the crime. The South Korean Government says IA is escalating. The average high school student spends around 23 hours each week playing computer games.

I will look at some good news relating to internet use, such as helping memory loss and those with Alzheimer’s, next Sunday.

kathryn@maltanet.net

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