Preview

Internet addiction is a very new behavioral disease, it should be taken seriously.  Anyone can have it, but people who are experiencing loneliness, depression; A.D.H.D, etc. are more likely to experience this.   In order to get over the addiction you need to tackle the things that are causing your addictions.   We should be learning from a young age the negative effects that the internet can have on you, and that the internet should be used for your benefit. 

Some people may be addicted to the internet through gaming, because you can receive achievements; and they feel as though they are more important in the game than in real life.  Another reason people like the internet more than real life because it is easier for them to make friends, it is risk free and don’t have to think about the real person.  This could be a good thing, making it easier for shy people to get used to talking to people; so that when they meet real people they will know how to handle the situation.  This can also be a bad thing because it causes people to spend too much time playing games instead of interacting with people in their real life.

  You see one of the main causes of having internet addiction is loneliness, and you can be lonely even if you have a lot of friends; it is a state of mind.  I think that you can treat this by confronting your problems with those you love or a therapist.   The people who experience internet addiction suffer negative emotions when they don’t have the internet.  Is internet addiction only bad when it only affects you, or when it affects the lives of the people around you?

 If the addiction is causing you to neglect the relationships with the people who are close to you, then you should try your best to prevent it every way possible to quick the addiction. It may not always be possible to do it by yourself, most of the time people need help to get over it.  You can’t necessarily get over internet addiction by yourself, because you will set limits for yourself that don’t really help you, but make you happy.  You need someone to help you set difficult goals and keep them by having them check on your progress routinely. 

The internet can be used for a lot of good things, but people tend to be addicted to the bad parts of the internet instead of the parts that will actually help them.  Another good way to get over your addiction is to do something that is productive, like if you are addicted to video games, maybe you can learn how to make your own video games via the internet.  Or even better going to your local library and finding books on how to make games and finding game designers in your neighborhood and have them teach you how to make them.   If you figure out how to make video games well, you may get a job in that field, and learn even more about it.

 Addictions to anything mean that you are dependent of that object.  How can you tell that you are addicted to something?  Spending a whole day playing video games means, that you are addicted, not necessarily if you don’t really do that all the time, it could just be that was the only day you could do that and you never get to play video games on a regular basis.  However, if you find it hard to keep up with your responsibilities because you feel that you need to beat another level.  If you need to play a certain video game to be happy, if that is the only thing that can make you happy, than this may mean that you are addicted. 

I remember from psychology class that you should never diagnose others with mental illness, and Internet addiction is a part of this and if you know someone that exhibits these traits, don’t just say their addicted.  If you think that someone you love has this than you should be able to talk to them about and tell them your concerns; let them know that you care about them, don’t ignore them because most of the time when people are addicted to something it usually means they have much bigger problems behind that.

  Some more excuses that people give would be that they will only be on for one hour, but often times they lose track of the time and forget to go to their engagements.  In this Preview I have been talking about specifics but you have to remember that everyone is different and just because someone exhibits these traits doesn’t necessarily mean that their addicted but it could mean that they are in pain and don’t know how to deal with their problems.