Symptoms

1) Using the online services everyday without any skipping.

2) Loosing track of time after making a connection.

3) Goes out less and less.

4) Spending less and less time on meals at home or at work, and eats in front of the monitor.

5) Denying spending too much time on the Net.

6) Others complaining of your too much time in front of the monitor.

7) Checking on your mailbox too many times a day.

8) You think you have got the greatest web site in the world and dying to give people your URL.

9) Loggin onto the Net while already busy at work.

10) Sneaking online when spouse or family members not at home, with a sense of relief.

http://www.addictions.com/internet.htm

Psychodynamics and Personality Psychodynamic and personality views account for addiction through early childhood traumas, correlations with other certain personality traits or other disorders, and inherited psychological dispositions (Sue, 1994). A dispositional model or diathesis-stress model of addiction might help in understanding IAD. Certain people, due to a variety of factors, may be predisposed (diathesis) to developing an addiction to something, be it alcohol, heroin, gambling, sex, shopping, or on-line computer services. They could go through their entire lives never developing any kind of addiction. On the other hand, if the right stressor, or combination of stressors, affects the person at a critical time, the person may be more inclined to develop an addiction. If the person begins drinking alcohol even occasionally, but continues to increase consumption, he may develop a dependency on alcohol. The same premise holds for Internet addiction. If it is the right combination of time, person, and event, then addiction may take place. The idea is that it is not the activity or subject that is important. It is the person that is most crucial to the equation.

Sociocultutral explanations Addictions vary according to sex, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, religion, and country. Some addictions are more common among persons of different categories. For example, alcoholism is most common in the middle socioeconomic classes, in Native and Irish Americans, and in Catholics. Whites are more likely to use PCP and hallucinogens, but less likely than Blacks or Latinos to use heroin(Sue, 1994). Not enough data is available yet about those persons addicted to the Internet to determine if a particular class is most predominant. In addition, at this point there is not enough diversity among Internet users to make any definitive statements. As the diversity among users increases, and as the amount of research on the problem increases, hopefully we will know more about this interesting aspect of addiction with regard to the Internet.

IS THIS ALL HYPE? There is debate among users as to whether there really is such an addiction, and as to whether it's a bad thing. Some people feel that the Internet is just a harmless, friendly tool for gathering information, making new friends, and passing time. Mental Health Net sponsors a discussion room about different topics related to mental health. There were several responses from people across the United States. Some of the people agreed that it is indeed possible to become addicted to the Internet. Others claimed it was all a farce. One of the participants, Charity, believes there is no such thing as Internet Addiction Disorder. She says there are many activities in life that she gets pleasure from engaging in, yet she does not believe she is addicted. She says, "Maybe the computer is just nicely interactive in a world of increasingly isolated people. And it's quiet, which is a very nice thing." Scribe, another participant, holds that maybe there is such a disorder, but it may not be all bad. He says, "...a person may spend a lot of time on the Internet, as I do, because I have finally found the 'bottomless' source of information. There is no last passage to this reference book, and if I am addicted to anything, it is knowledge... Are we not all addicted to something, which keeps us interested in living?" (Mental Health Net, 1997) Others such as Young and other psychologists, feel that used in excess, the Internet can become hazardous to one's mental and physical health. By definition, an addiction does interfere with normal, adaptive functioning. So if someone is addicted, his or her functioning is maladaptive. This may manifest itself in a few of the symptoms classified by the American Psychiatric Association, or it may manifest itself in all of them. The New York Times reported last August about IAD, providing true stories about individuals who think they might be addicted. The paper tells the story of one woman in the Pacific Northwest who was divorced by her husband because of the enormous amount of time she spent in front of her computer. Her fixation with the Internet apparently caused her to forget to buy food for her children, to take them to their doctor appointments, and to buy enough oil to heat her home. There is also the story of the seventeen year old boy from Texas who was suffering from Internet withdrawal symptoms. When he was brought into the alcohol and drug rehabilitation center, his body convulsed about, and he through tables and chairs around the rooms (Belluck, 1996).

http://www.chem.vt.edu/chem-dept/dessy/honors/papers/ferris.html