Personal Injury Law

OMG - Are U Addicted to Texting?

By Jane Akre

Love to text message? Can't stand being away from the computer to read your emails?

If this sounds familiar you may have more to worry about than your emails. You may have a mental illness.

The American Journal of Psychiatry report, Dr. Jerald J. Block says that like excessive gaming, or virtual sex, e-mail and texting may be part of the compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder and a form of addiction.

Four symptoms tell you if you have a problem:

• Excessive use of the computer or of texting to the extent that you lose track of time or neglect eating and sleeping
• Feelings of withdrawal when your computer is not nearby that lead to anger, tension and depression
• Constant need for more time with your computer and to upgrade your equipment
• Experiencing a negative repercussion of the addiction such as ignoring others, fatigue, poor achievement, lying and getting into arguments

Dr. Jerald Block, reports that South Korea has done the most on Internet addiction, considered a serious public health problem that affects more than 200,000 South Korean children.  80 percent may require psychotropic medications this report says.

The average South Korean high school student is spending about 23 hours a week gaming while that country is training more than 1,000 counselors to treat Internet addiction. Schools are introducing preventive measures.

The problem is so great in China, that that country is restricting computer game use to three hours a day.

The use of Internet cafes makes that easier to do than restricting time in a child's bedroom.  And in the U.S., therapists are not trained to screen for Internet addiction.   

Internet addiction is resistant to treatment Dr. Block writes. And it has a high relapse rate.

Dr. Block may have a solution. As a footnote, the article says Dr. Block owns a patent on technology that restricts computer access.  #

Full post as published by InjuryBoard on March 26, 2008 (boomark / email).