SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The digital drug: Internet addiction spawns U.S. treatment programs
When Danny Reagan was 13, he began exhibiting signs of what doctors usually associate with drug addiction. He became agitated, secretive and withdrew from friends. He had quit baseball and Boy Scouts, and he stopped doing homework and showering.
But he was not using drugs. He was hooked on YouTube and video games, to the point where he could do nothing else. As doctors would confirm, he was addicted to his electronics.
"After I got my console, I kind of fell in love with it," Danny, now 16 and a junior in a Cincinnati high school, said. "I liked being able to kind of shut everything out and just relax."
Danny was different from typical plugged-in American teenagers. Psychiatrists say internet addiction, characterized by a loss of control over internet use and disregard for the consequences of it, affects up to 8 percent of Americans and is becoming more common around the world.
Show-e-ring? Is that some kind of connected device?
Related: How Facebook Can Be Addictive
Asia's Smartphone Addiction
In South Korea, a Rehab Camp for Internet-Addicted Teenagers
Chinese Teen Dies as a Result of Internet Addiction Camp
World Health Organization Will Recognize "Gaming Disorder"
World Health Organization Officially Lists "Gaming Disorder" in ICD
Why is There a 'Gaming Disorder' but No 'Smartphone Disorder?'
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday January 28 2019, @08:45PM
So the only real cure for their problems is to treat the root causes of their depression or anxiety which may well be abusive or unethical behavior or policies in their environment. If you just block their escape routes, they're likely going to wind up more depressed or go completely insane in the long run. For some people I would argue depression is not really mental illness--it's a normal physiological reaction to an assholic environment. Fix the environment.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?