Internet, Sex Addictions Similar, Researcher Says
By Brian D. Crecente, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Twelve hours a day, seven days a week, Dave Saunders sat bleary-eyed in front
of his computer living a virtual life.
It wasn't his job.
It wasn't his hobby.
It was his addiction.
"One in every 10 computer users is an addict," said Patrick
McGinnis, a licensed Fort Lauderdale counselor who specializes in sex addiction
and the Internet."Just like
sex addiction, a lot of people make jokes, but the
reality is it does create a lot of pain in people's lives."
People have lost their jobs, their marriages, their children over Internet
addiction, McGinnis said.
"People are becoming sex addicts or getting addicted to the Net simply
because of the availability. They feel freer to engage in behaviors that in the
past they never would have considered," McGinnis said.
Saunders, who has family in West Palm Beach, said his addiction started
through work. Saunders is not his real name, but a pseudonym he uses online.
"In my business, I need the Internet for getting
my job done," he wrote in a recent Internet interview.
"So, a lot of my time online is necessary. When I started doing more
entertainment things, that convinced me I was on too much."
Saunders said he was spending eight to 12 hours a day online and soon met a
woman - with whom he formed a relationship that nearly destroyed his marriage.
He would not elaborate but said it's something he is still dealing with.
A typical day for Saunders started at 6 a.m., rushing to get online and then
hanging out in chat rooms until noon. Work took up his afternoon, but after
dinner it was back on the Internet until 3 a.m.,
chatting.
'Like an AA meeting in a bar'
The time online began to affect his offline life. He spent less time with his
family, skipped meals, skipped work. In desperation, he turned to the source of
his problems for help. Saunders found an Internet discussion
list for online addicts and began to cut back on his Internet use.
"I try to sign off at midnight," he said. "I go online in the
early morning still, but I don't stay on all day. I check e-mail every so often,
but then I get off as soon as I can. It sounds a lot better, but it's still way
too much."
Saunders, who says he is still addicted, recently formed his own online
support group to help fellow addicts.
"It's a self-help group that cheers when people stop showing up,"
he said. "But having an Internet addiction group
online is like having an AA meeting in a bar."
Psychologist Kimberly Young knows what he's talking about. In 1995, she
started the Center for On-Line Addiction, a Web-based
treatment center located in Bradford, Pa., that offers online counseling for
online addiction.
"I get that a lot," Young said, laughing, "but you need to
provide these people a place where they feel comfortable talking about their
problems, and the Internet is the first place they look.
It makes sense."
At the center, people can sign up for counseling via e-mail or on the phone,
and support groups meet regularly in Internet chat
rooms. E-mail counseling runs $15 an e-mail, while telephone or chat room
counseling costs $75 for a 60-minute session.
Young, who was a computer systems analyst before earning a degree in
psychology, said providing counseling through the Internet allows
her clients to open up more to her than they might in person. And, Young said, Internet
addiction isn't like alcoholism. Because of the necessity of the Internet,
she said, you can't stop using the Internet, you have to
just limit it.
The Internet's 'darker side'
The Center for On-Line Addiction started as a site
for Young's research on Internet addiction and slowly
transformed into an Internet health clinic, she said.
Young published her study, Internet addiction: the
emergence of a new clinical disorder in 1996 and soon became the Ann Landers of
the Internet world.
"The Internet has a darker side. I don't think
there is anybody who is going to deny that," she said. "People may
debate the use of the term 'addiction,' but everyone
agrees there is a problem."
Several psychologists presented studies on whether the Internet is
an addiction in August at the American Psychological
Association annual meeting in Boston, said David Partenheimer, a spokesman for
the APA.
The APA hasn't yet taken an official stance because there has not yet been
enough research done on the topic, he said.
"Our decision will be based on the research and what it shows," he
said. "The research is still in its infancy in this area."
Young, one of many researchers studying the topic, developed a test to
determine if someone is an Internet addict and soon
found that like drug addiction, Internet
addiction has many flavors.
"A homemaker who never used a computer before, suddenly chatting online
80 hours a week," she said. "A man quitting his job because he thinks
he is going to day trade, and then he loses all of his money and becomes
suicidal.
"It's like people are bingeing on the Internet."
In the world of the Internet addict, online
pornography and sex sites seem to be the most addictive, McGinnis said.
In 1998, it was estimated in one study that there were 70,000 sex- related
Web sites, with 200 being added daily. The survey also estimated 9.6 million, or
about 15 percent, of all Web users have logged on to the 10 most popular sex
sites.
"A lot of men who wouldn't go out to an adult bookstore end up at a
pornography site," Young said. "In the real world, it's not there
dangling in front of your face, but it's everywhere out there on the Internet,
and it's easy to bump into."
McGinnis said virtually every one of the sex addicts he treats is also
addicted to the Internet.
"It is very accessible, affordable and anonymous ," he said.
"People can be very secretive. They can pretend they are something they are
not."
A substitute for family, friends
Bella Weinstein, a psychiatric social worker in Boca Raton, said Internet
addiction also is sinking its claws into techno-happy teens.
"Kids are using it as a substitute for vital, essential interaction with
friends and family," she said. "They are becoming more isolated from
each other, more removed from their family and support groups.
"The Internet precludes people from fully
developing themselves as total human beings. To do that, you need to interact
with people, interact in a very real and dynamic way - not in this childish
playground you create.
"At some point, there is no return."
Debate Swirls On Net Addiction VS. Phase
Thursday, December 23, 1999
By Brian D. Crecente, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
When does a hobby become an addiction?
The question psychologists, psychiatrists and counselors have struggled with
for decades is now being asked about the Internet: Is it
addictive or just time-consuming?
At the annual gathering of the American Psychological Association in August
in Boston, at least three researchers argued that many computer users' seemingly
obsessive use of the Internet is just that, an
obsession.
But John Grohol, an Austin, Texas-based psychology researcher, says it's an
ordinary phase that people go through when a new technology is introduced, much
like a teen's overuse of a telephone.
"At first, they spend hours on the phone. Then, once they get used to
it, they learn to curb their use," Grohol said. "I think within a few
years most people will have gotten online and tried out the Internet and
have gotten acclimated. I think then you will see this go away as an issue of
debate."
But David Greenfield, director of the Center for Internet Studies
in West Hartford, Conn., and author of Virtual Addiction; Help
for Netheads, Cyberfreaks and Those Who Love Them, says the Internet is
not only addictive but also nearing a national epidemic.
"There is nobody who treats patients right now who hasn't run across
someone who is affected by Internet addiction,"
Greenfield said. " This isn't debatable. This isn't opinion. There is some
hard data out there to support that Internet addiction exists."
In 1998, Greenfield teamed with ABCNews.com to do an online survey of the
computer use habits of about 18,000 people. His survey found that about 95
percent of those who use the Internet start out using it
compulsively but their use drops when the novelty wears off. About 6 percent of Internet
users surveyed fit the criteria to be labeled addicts.
"People are debating whether this should have a formal label or be a
regular diagnosis," he said. "I don't care about that; there are a lot
of mental disturbances that don't have labels. There will be people arguing over
this for years, but it makes no difference to the people affected by this
disorder."
The surveys - there have been about six to date - are inherently unreliable,
Grohol said. A survey allows for quick but often less-scientific results, he
said.
"You would need to assess the people involved in the study, to look at
each individual's background," Grohol said. "You have to tease out all
of the other possible explanations for the person's problems."
"People get divorces for numerous reasons - for spouses watching TV -
but we don't go around saying television watching is a disorder, " he said.
"The fact that you throw out the symptoms and people agree isn't enough
support."
Greenfield sees Internet addiction as not only a
problem facing a small percentage of society but also one that will shape
humanity:
"I had a guy tell me that he had an intimate relationship with someone
in Alaska but that he hasn't said hello to the person who lives across the hall
from him in his building in three weeks. There's something wrong with
that."
Thursday, December 23, 1999
By Brian D. Crecente, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
If you answer yes to five or more of these questions, you may suffer from Internet
addiction. Try netaddiction.com for a more detailed test.
1. Are you preoccupied with previous online activity or do you anticipate
your next online session?
2. Do you feel the need to spend increasing amounts of time on the Internet
to achieve satisfaction?
3. Have you made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop Internet
use?
4. Do you feel restless, depressed or irritable when trying to cut down or
stop Internet use?
5. Do you stay online longer than originally intended?
6. Have you jeopardized or risked the loss of significant relationship or
educational or career opportunity because of the Internet?
7. Have you lied to family members, a therapist or others to conceal the
extent of involvement with the Internet?
8. Do you use the Internet as a way of escaping from
problems or of relieving feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety or depression?
Source: Psychologist Kimberly Young, founder of the Center for On- Line Addiction.