To be diagnosed as having Internet Addiction Disorder, a person must meet certain criteria as prescribed by the American Psychiatric Association.
Three or more of these criteria must be present at any time during a twelve month period: 1. Tolerance: This refers to the need for increasing amounts of time on the Internet to achieve satisfaction and/or significantly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of time on the Internet.
2. Two or more withdrawal symptoms developing within days to one month after reduction of Internet use or cessation of Internet use (i.e., quitting cold turkey) , and these must cause distress or impair social, personal or occupational functioning. These include: psychomotor agitation, i.e. trembling, tremors; anxiety; obsessive thinking about what is happening on the Internet; fantasies or dreams about the Internet; voluntary or involuntary typing movements of the fingers.
3. Use of the Internet is engaged in to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms.
4. The Internet is often accessed more often, or for longer periods of time than was intended.
5. A significant amount of time is spent in activities related to Internet use ( e.g., Internet books, trying out new World Wide Web browsers, researching Internet vendors, etc.).
6. Important social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced because of Internet use.
7. The individual risks the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of excessive use of the Internet. In recent research, other characteristics have been identified.
The first is feelings of restlessness or irritability when attempting to cut down or stop Internet use. The second is that the Internet is used as a way of escaping problems or relieving feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety or depression. The third characteristic is that the user lies to family members or friends to conceal the extent of involvement with the Internet. And, finally, the user returns repeatedly despite excessive fees (Egger & Rauterberg, 1996).
I prefer to use the word Cyberexia because this is more correct because an addiction stems from the mind. In Buddhist terms the mind will distort any semblance of naturalness in our lives. But why I prefer to use the word Cyberexia is because I feel that too much Internet use can contribute to a withering or shrinking of the soul, spirit, etheric body or just plain old prana and life force.
Each culture, or more strictly speaking each strain of wisdom in each culture, understands that the mind of Man or Woman, that is the human mind, could itself be called addictive. Part of the problem with all this excessive internet use is the lack of discernment we have about what are real needs and what are purely desires. Needs are more immediate and can be satisfied straight away. Desires are more future orientated, can never be satisfied and again are a product of the mind which itself is never satisfied.
In fact the mind is like a begging bowl. Remember when you had 250 followers, then 500, then 100 and so on and so on. Do you remember when you had $100 and then sometime later you had $1000. Then the desire comes to have more. You may have acquired $10,000, now all of a sudden, you want $100,000, the $200,000, $500,000, $750,000 and so on and so forth.
Sufficient to say that society has exploited the human being’s natural desire for expansion of consciousness, unity, peace and harmony and transferred it to the ego’s never ending ambition for power, respectability, wealth, success and all the trapping of the material life.
Not that there is anything wrong with material trappings but the constant desire for more is withering our spirits. That’s why I call it Cyberexia. It is a simple phenomenon and why we constantly keep working, working, working for something we know not what; whatsoever we have loses meaning. We all have observed this fact surely?
The moment we have acquired a material possession, it loses meaning and that which we do not have gains significance. After some time we see that the mind gets bored with everything sooner or later.
Cheers
Chris Borrett
Image Credit: FreeImages.com/Junior Gomes
If by chance, you have not encountered my previous posts outside this blog, one of my favourites is about “How To Make A Decision and Stick To It”. You have the luxury of reading it by clicking here.