Some Psychiatrists Addicted To Prescribing Internet Addiction
from the must-be-good-for-business dept
Over the past few years, we've seen so many "calls" to label the use of certain technologies as "addictions" that we've noticed something of a... well... addiction by some to call for new technology addictions. Among the long, long list of possible addictions has been email addiction, web addiction, online porn addiction, video game addiction, internet addiction, and mobile phones or other gadget addictions. Almost every time, the call for addiction comes from a psychologist or psychiatrist trying to build up a reputation for treating such "addictions." It must be good for business (and perhaps a lot less harrowing than treating some other types of addictions).So it shouldn't come as any surprise to see a psychiatrist now calling for internet addiction to become an officially classified addiction in the next version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (basically the official rulebook for such things). Of course, there are a few problems, including the fact that research has shown little evidence that the internet is really addictive, and almost every story of internet addiction really tends to be about deeper issues that resulted in someone seeking an outlet on the internet (from depression, bad family situations, alcoholism, etc.). Focusing on the "internet" part tends to have people trying to treat a symptom, not the disease. Hopefully, this new push will follow the same path as the one last year to have video games declared an addiction too. It didn't take long for that idea to get shot down.
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Filed Under: addiction, internet addiction, psychiatrists
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Comparison
I also highly doubt they'll manage to get it in DSMV.
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Internet Addictions
Actually, all kidding aside, ANYTHING in excess is not good for you and can be considered addiction. Calling it addiction is necessary to begin healing someone and to ensure medical insurance coverage for the patient.
You have to ask yourself, has this behavior "harmed" any aspect of my life? Has it effected my family, my job, financial status? If Yes, then you need help. If not, don't worry about it.
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Internet Addictions
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Internet Addictions
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Look for a cease and desist letter in the mail, (remember not to show anyone once you get it) as I have already trademarked all "…technology based addiction nomenclature as it pertains to human, and animal (both domestic and wild) behavior and said organisms' interactions with anything deemed as 'technology'."
Technology is defined as "'the sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization.’"
Examples begin with the wheel and pretty much carry on through to anything man made.
Your flagrant disregard for applicable copyright of such terms clearly violates fair use agreements... blah blah.
Suck on that™...
-josh
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You are an idiot. Stop! You are not funny.
Love,
Your mom
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Oh, crap!
This means you, Trudy, Nina and Angela.
TT
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Re: Oh, crap!
There are countless diseases and disorders out there who's symptoms overlap with the symptoms of others. Half of the disorders out there now are really just vitamin deficiencies or the result of some other problem with a persons diet.
For example, I've been developing a case of insomnia. At first I thought about sleep pills but after some research I found out that low amounts of melatonin can cause insomnia. Should I treat the symptom or the problem? Most doctors want you to treat the symptom. That way they can prescribe you a powerful sleep med that also requires refills... and thus return visits. They make a lot less money off of telling you to get out of your damned house and get some sun.
The real scary part is that most of these doctors don't even know they are doing this. Many honestly would never make the connection between too much time spent indoors and loss of sleep. Those that do would very likely convince themselves sleep aids are a more reliable "solution." They have been trained throughout med school by their teachers, their peers, and the doctors they interned with to think this way, and they think nothing of it. The doctors, teachers, and peers that taught them to think this way didn't realize they were teaching anything out of the norm ether. It's no conspiracy. It's just Americans being Americans... sheep being sheep.
I've been diagnosed with acid reflux disease twice now. Both times the doctors drew their diagnosis from completely different symptoms and both conflicted with each other. Both gave me different meds both of which they needed to see me every month to write a new prescription for and both of which had to be taken for life. Both meds had side effects I didn't care for and both didn't help the problems I actually went to the doctors for help with. Did some research and guess what? Turns out I had been eating a lot of food with garlic in it without realizing, too much in fact. Changed my diet and both symptoms disappeared.
Two doctors, independent of each other, misdiagnosing me in favor of the latest big disorder, for conflicting reasons, unwilling to agree with me that the meds weren't helping, and both unaware of a much simpler, less expensive, and more permanent solution I found on the internet.
Yes, doctors are diagnosing people in such a way that benefits them financially.
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Do I believe most doctors are only in it for the money? Absolutely not.
Do most doctors treat only symptoms instead of trying to find the root cause for your illness? No, not most, but apparently most of those you have visited are like this.
But let's leave regular MDs out of it for a minute:
My point is that this is simply more fuel for the fire for $cientology to say that ALL psychiatrists are bad people. If you had any inkling as to their propaganda machine, you'd know they teach that every psychiatrist out there is ready to drug, rape and otherwise abuse you while giving you ECT and pre-frontal lobotomy.
TT
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Medical and dental
Any of you with young kids like me are probably being put through the same ringer that I have been with all these dentists that want to drill into baby teeth "because of deep grooves" that might eventually become a cavity. They're always coming at you with something new. My kids are also constantly being put on prescription medications by the doctors too... Flouride drops, Nasonex, laxatives, you name it - we've been told we need it.
We're all being preyed upon and our money and futures being stolen so that some asshole can turn a buck. Internet addiction? I bet they'll find a pharmaceutical cure.
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I thought most addictions...
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction as much as we all love Wikipedia, I found this summary interesting)
I really don't see the problem in allowing Internet Addiction to be added to the list. I agree with post #5 that getting these terms added simply allows insurance companies to offer money for treatment. And some people do need treatment. I can see it possible for someone to spend so much time surfing the Internet that it starts affecting their daily life including work and family (not to mention the physical problems that could come up like carpal tunnel, eye strain, and the results of a sedentary life style).
Just because I don't suffer from Internet Addiction doesn't mean I am blind enough to think no one can have it. Beside, how is Internet Addiction any different from a Gambling or Shopping Addiction (both which are in the book by the way).
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It's easy to say 'Pfft, you can be addicted to *anything*, what's the point in adding the internet?'. Someone mentioned that different types of addictions (i.e. food, sex, gambling, whatever) usually have *very different* treatments. Adding internet as an addiction means that psychologists have a way to collect treatments for the addiction.
I agree that the suggested treatment should read 'Look for underlying problems which they escape by drowning in the internet.' But after reading that comment, I can't agree that adding it to the list was worthless.
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Addition to the Addiction
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"Prescribe" is not the word you are looking for
Psychatrists aren't telling people to go out and become internet addicted in order to manage some other condition, they are telling them that they have a condition call "internet addiction" and are then prescribing some treatment.
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Addiction
I have an addictive personality. I once played Need for Speed: Most Wanted for 2 weeks straight from sun up to sun down. I was playing it on XBox and used the right trigger for throttle. Halfway through the second week my right index finger started going numb. It stayed that way for almost a month before sensation fully returned to it. I also can drink 4 liters of soda in one sitting. I can eat enough food for four people at one time and be back for more in 30 minutes. I can spend 18 hours a day on the internet and not be phased by it.
Anything that can give me even the slightest high is something I am capable of being addicted to. You see that is the key to understanding addiction. Addiction is chemical in nature. In the case of internet addiction, work addiction, etc your brain is releasing chemicals that make you feel good as a reward for accomplishing something. Is it possible to be addicted to the internet? Yes. The internet allows one to feel as though he has accomplished a great deal without expending very much energy.
Should Internet Addiction be an official, separate, addiction? No. Work addiction has the exact same root cause. So does sexual addiction. So does addiction to video games. So does all of the addictions that don't involve putting chemicals into your body from an outside source. Thus it stands to reason that they are the same disease appearing in different ways. Would you give an entirely different diagnosis for dry skin based on where on the body it appears? That makes no sense and nether does separate diagnoses for endorphin-addiction.
To quote Jaqenn above: "Someone mentioned that different types of addictions (i.e. food, sex, gambling, whatever) usually have *very different* treatments."
Food... maybe. Sex... maybe. Those are specialized circumstances (survival) that our bodies react differently to. In the end however it still boils down to the release of endorphins used to train us to enjoy such activities. Gambling, Internet, Gaming, etc... There is no difference in the cause. Why should there be differences in the treatment? I'll tell you why. It's more profitable that way.
Escaping from your bad home life by getting on the internet isn't even addiction. That's something else entirely.
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If you're worried about being prescribed meds that
Back to the point, if someone writes compulsively, you call him a writer. If you draw compulsively, you call him an artist. If someone uses the Internet compulsively, you call him an addict and give him a pill? Huh?
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Re: If you're worried about being prescribed meds
Give me one example where surfing the Internet is considered a profession in this country. Yea, I didn't think so.
And your argument doesn't hold. If someone drinks compulsively , they need treatment. If someone gambles compulsively, they also need treatment. I would even say if someone writes and draw compulsively (enough to where it interferes with their normal life, like job, family, etc.) then they too have problems.
Besides, everyone can write or draw, but not everyone is a writer or artist. Everyone can drink, gamble, and use the Internet, but that doesn't mean they necessarily have an addiction. Are there people with addictions out there? Yes. Burying your head in the sand and pretending Internet doesn't exist is silly.
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If someone packs up, quits thier job, and heads to L.A. to be a star, you might shake your head, but you wouldn't call it an addiction, even after they work shit jobs and sleep with producers to get parts. Like a crack whore might sleep with johns to score crack.
We don't watch television in my home. We read and play on the Internet. We spend the same amount of time of those past times as the average American spends watching television. Are we addicted to book and the Internet? Are lots of people addicted to television? Oh my God, I work forty hours per week. Am I addicted to work?????
I'd better call my doc and get a scrip for that. :)
The point is that an addiction is an addiction regardless of whether an income can be had from it.
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Methinks the man doth protest too much
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WOW
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retiredss11"11!1
There are many ways to make a living (making you a professional) by "surfing" or "researching" things on the internet. I can't believe you just said that!! Dum di dum dum!
I think I'm addicted to fruit. Quick, give me some meds!
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Children, children
All I read was whining. I agree that it shouldn't be classified as an addiction (yet) because it really is just treating a symptom of something large. I also think that it can be useful to group a bunch of symptoms together, therefore psychiatrists will have an easier way of identifying and treating the "addiction", "symptom", however you want to define it.
Really though, grow up.
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Internet Additction
- A thought about the subject (drugs, alcohol)
- Extreme excitement
- Fear
Overuse of the Internet may cause the first two feelings, but the third, the one that really indicates addiction, is not there, I believe.
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Internet Additction
- A thought about the subject (drugs, alcohol)
- Extreme excitement
- Fear
Overuse of the Internet may cause the first two feelings, but the third, the one that really indicates addiction, is not there, I believe.
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trying to find a solution to limit the time your kids spend on the computer?
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North York Drug Rehab
http://www.drugrehabscenters.com/
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E-Prescribing
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