PA Hospital First To Open Inpatient Treatment Program For Addiction To The Internet
from the does-that-make-us-pushers? dept
It's been a while since we heard supposedly smart health professionals, who are clearly addicted to making claims about addiction, discuss internet addictions. You may recall that a couple of years back, China declared that spending six hours in a day on the internet meant you were addicted. Even some of our domestic psychiatrists were lobbying for an addiction to the internet being included in the DSM book, which is the kind of light reading that would give a hypochondriac a case of the tight-pants. Sadly, to date, the concept of an overarching addiction to the internet hasn't been deemed fit for inclusion.
But that won't stop hospitals from profiting off of the concept, now that the very first inpatient program to treat internet addiction has been launched at Bradford Regional Medical Center in Pennsylvania.
The voluntary, 10-day program is set to open on Sept. 9 at the Behavioral Health Services at Bradford Regional Medical Center. The program was organized by experts in the field and cognitive specialists with backgrounds in treating more familiar addictions like drug and alcohol abuse.As someone who has to use the internet for most of the day due to employment requirements, you can understand how worried I am about this. Would my time be better spent drinking sweet, awesome scotch, or snorting a couple of lines off my desk? It's hard to know for sure, but I suppose I should probably switch the screen off and stop writing this post right now. But... I can't. Writing internet posts is so alluring. Maybe writing is an addiction, too? After all, I really like doing it, so it has to be bad, right? I wonder what makes the scary internet suffer its own unique addictive traits, oh super-wise medical professionals?
"[Internet addiction] is a problem in this country that can be more pervasive than alcoholism," said Dr. Kimberly Young, the psychologist who founded the non-profit program. "The Internet is free, legal and fat free."
Most people with a severe Internet addiction have some type of undiagnosed psychiatric disorder or personality problem, according to Dr. Roger Laroche, the medical director of the department of psychiatry at Bradford Regional. Each patient in the program, which costs $14,000 out-of-pocket because insurance does not cover the expense, will be psychologically evaluated after undergoing a 'digital detox.'Oh. So internet addiction isn't actually a "thing", but rather it's a mistaken diagnosis for symptoms of other entirely separate mental health disorders. Well, that makes a lot more sense. After all, we don't see a person who cuts their arms habitually and say they're addicted to cutting themselves. We say they're depressed, or suffer from bi-polar disorder, or an eating disorder, or whatever. It's a symptom, not a disease. What may look like internet addiction is really just a symptom of something else. But, hey, why not charge $14k for a program that isn't covered by insurance, even though a properly diagnosed disorder would likely be covered?
Duke University's chairman of the DSM-IV, Dr. Allen Frances, sums it up nicely.
"If we can be addicted to gambling and the Internet, why not also include addictions to shopping, exercise, sex, work, golf, sunbathing, model railroading, you name it? All passionate interests are at risk for redefinition as mental disorders."I'd be diagnosed with addiction to at least four of those, so I'm either screwed or I just have a lot of really enjoyable hobbies in my life. You pick.
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Filed Under: addiction, hospitals, internet addiction, treatment
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I AM SO ADDICTED!!
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Woohoo! A brand new Techdirt comment section game!
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if you are interested to participate more than once...
However, the word has become so watered-down that we may as well strike it from the dictionary. If a person is engaged enough in any material or activity to participate more than once, then that person is now 'addicted,' in the current use of the word. Much of this started with shows like '20/20' covering caffeine 'addiction.' We can ingest a lot of substances that will train our bodies to expect them, but that does not make them an addiction. If you eat a jelly doughnut every morning at 8, then, pretty soon, your pancrease effectively schedules an insulin spike at 8-ish. Just because there is some physiological reaction to missing a dose of coffee, TV show, or even a video game, calling it an addiction is ridiculous. I can't help but wonder how recovered heroin addicts feel when someone claims to be addicted to coffee because they get a headache when they miss it.
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Re: if you are interested to participate more than once...
What you're thinking of is when someone wakes up in the morning and is all groggy before their first cup. That's not withdrawal. Caffeine withdrawal shows up a few days to a few weeks after cutting it off.
The jelly doughnut thing is right though. That's not addiction, that's more a learned response.
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Re: if you are interested to participate more than once...
Whether or not someone has an addiction isn't really important for that person. What's important is if they have a dysfunction (whether it's an "addiction" or not).
In other words, if an activity is not degrading the person's quality of life, even if it's an addiction, then who cares? It's not a problem unless it's a problem.
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This description fits the unconstitutional NSA spies perfectly!
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Try looking up the way chargemaster prices are set up. Insurance gets around the issue via collective bargaining. Sadly, people who go to the hospital, especially the ER, need treatment now, and can't afford to shop around. Especially since you don't know the total cost until after treatment.*
They might give a number, but if anything happens expect to pay several times that amount.
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Just a joke, of course...or is it?
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I am kinda on the fence with that one. It is easy to get carried away...
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I hear eating and going to the bathroom are also addictions
I mean, everyone I've told to break their bathroom addiction still visits the bathroom every 2 or 3 hours, or worse yet they start using the bushes outside as their bathroom every 2 to 3 hours! No matter how hard they try they just can't kick their bathroom habit!
And then there's eating, I tell my fellow employees to kick their eating addiction and do something like read a book during their lunch break. Yet where do I find them at lunch breaks? In the cafeteria eating! They're too addicted to eating to stop!
I myself am sadly addicted to both habits, I need mental help.
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Re: I hear eating and going to the bathroom are also addictions
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Re: I hear eating and going to the bathroom are also addictions
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You should think yourselves lucky..
He is therefore going to make us all do without porn :(
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Works for me.
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Online is where you pwn
Your hands sweat, your mouse shakes
Another click is all it takes...
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Internet Addiction
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Seriously?
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The same cycle repeats itself on everything.
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No wonder the rest of America doesn't understand. In some instances a few addiction appear to be fabricated out of thin air.
The DSM now has a better definition but it still doesn't jibe with the ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine) definition.
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That's on Blurry Line
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Can't believe
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