Health & Medicine
Internet Addiction: PA Hospital First in U.S. to Treat Issue with Rehab Program
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Sep 04, 2013 01:11 PM EDT
For many of us that find ourselves constantly surrounded by media and technological devices, it's easy to slip into the online world for a bit longer than we intended to. Facebook, chat rooms, blogs, movies, our favorite television shows--you name it. It's all there in one computer, phone or other device that easily allows us to access all that we can ask for through the click of a few buttons. But too much time spent on the screen can creep into an impulse control disorder, and when minutes turn into hours, time spent online can become an internet addiction.
As some internet users may develop an emotional attachment to online friends and activities they create online, this may prevent them from other social activities, daily chores or activities or in some cases, even going out of the house due to their internet social community. When their life becomes majorly disrupted by the online world, that's when an addiction experts believe this disorder forms.
The program will begin on Sept. 9 at the Behavioral Health Services at Bradford Regional Medical Center located in Central Pennsylvania. This is a 10-day voluntary session created by experts who have previously encountered issues regarding various addictions.
The program is a voluntary and lasts 10 days, allowing to patients to voluntarily detox from their internet fixes.
However, as the idea of internet addiction is still struggling to be widely accepted in the medical field, insurance companies have refused to pay for the rehab service, which costs $14,000 out of pocket.
At this time, internet addiction is not officially recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--the American Psychiatric Association's handbook that classifies mental illnesses. However, critics suggest that the internet can become quite the obsessive pastime, leading to addictive patterns.
"[Internet addiction] is a problem in this country that can be more pervasive than alcoholism," the psychologist who founded this new non-profit program, Dr. Kimberly Young, said via the study. "The Internet is free, legal and fat free."
However, Young also stressed that dependence on technology was not necessarily a sign of addiction. For this, the individual's life needed to be drastically affected in a negative way by his or her internet use.
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First Posted: Sep 04, 2013 01:11 PM EDT
For many of us that find ourselves constantly surrounded by media and technological devices, it's easy to slip into the online world for a bit longer than we intended to. Facebook, chat rooms, blogs, movies, our favorite television shows--you name it. It's all there in one computer, phone or other device that easily allows us to access all that we can ask for through the click of a few buttons. But too much time spent on the screen can creep into an impulse control disorder, and when minutes turn into hours, time spent online can become an internet addiction.
As some internet users may develop an emotional attachment to online friends and activities they create online, this may prevent them from other social activities, daily chores or activities or in some cases, even going out of the house due to their internet social community. When their life becomes majorly disrupted by the online world, that's when an addiction experts believe this disorder forms.
The program will begin on Sept. 9 at the Behavioral Health Services at Bradford Regional Medical Center located in Central Pennsylvania. This is a 10-day voluntary session created by experts who have previously encountered issues regarding various addictions.
The program is a voluntary and lasts 10 days, allowing to patients to voluntarily detox from their internet fixes.
However, as the idea of internet addiction is still struggling to be widely accepted in the medical field, insurance companies have refused to pay for the rehab service, which costs $14,000 out of pocket.
At this time, internet addiction is not officially recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--the American Psychiatric Association's handbook that classifies mental illnesses. However, critics suggest that the internet can become quite the obsessive pastime, leading to addictive patterns.
"[Internet addiction] is a problem in this country that can be more pervasive than alcoholism," the psychologist who founded this new non-profit program, Dr. Kimberly Young, said via the study. "The Internet is free, legal and fat free."
However, Young also stressed that dependence on technology was not necessarily a sign of addiction. For this, the individual's life needed to be drastically affected in a negative way by his or her internet use.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone