Internet Addiction as a Mental Disease

Internet Addiction as a Mental Disease

The inclusion of Internet addiction as a mental disorder is a very controversial concept in the psychological field. Studies like “Internet Addiction or Excessive Internet Use” by Aviv Weinstein of the Hadassah Medical Organization at Jerusalem, and Michel Lejoyeux of the Hospital Bichat Claude Bernard at Paris, have been realized in order to prove if internet addiction is a mental disorder on its own, or simply the symptom of another underlying mental disorder. Several studies support internet addiction as a mental disorder by pointing out the psychological similarities between internet addiction and substance dependence. Dr. Aboujaoude the director of the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Clinic and the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic at the Stanford University School of Medicine says that the anonymity that the internet provides lets the users do things without being held responsible which is a very addicting feature of the internet. Other studies like “Internet Addiction and Delay Discounting in College Students” focus on the psychological similarities between addicts like impulsiveness and the need of early rewards. Even so, as stated by Mathew N. Hall, Howard J. Shaffer, and Joni Vander Bilt of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry in “Computer Addiction: a Critical Consideration”, “...empirical support for the construct validity of computer addiction has yet to emerge, that defining the construct as a unique psychiatric disorder is therefore premature…”. Internet addiction has not been yet recognized as a mental disorder, but it is in most cases the symptom of an underlying mental disorder.

The inclusion of internet addiction as a formal mental disorder is supported by some psychologists that have found similarities between internet addicts and people with different sorts of addiction. Weinstein and Lejoyeux say that: “…since (internet addiction) shows the features of excessive use despite adverse consequences, withdrawal phenomena, and tolerance that characterize many substance use disorders” (278). Psychological traits that are commonalities in addicts have been brought up to light too. Bryan K. Saville, Amanda Gisbert, Jason Kopp, and Carolyn Telesco made a study titled “Internet Addiction and Delay discounting” where they proved that, just as drug addicts and non-drug addicts, internet addicts tend to be more impulsive than their non-addict counterparts. Weinstein and Lejoyeux also talk about how brain imaging showed that internet addiction shares the neurological mechanism of substance dependence. Dr. Aboujaoude too claims similarities between internet addiction and other addiction disorders. Aboujaoude explains that the release of dopamine happens after pleasurable experiences like eating, gambling, or using alcohol or drugs. Videogames have the same effect and so videogames have “a similar effect on the brain as an

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