Are you an Internet addict?
Experts say that millions of people around the world are one click away from ‘online’ addiction.
The Internet is where we spend more and more of our time. But for a growing number of people, it’s an out-of-control habit that interferes (17)__________ normal living and causes severe stress on family, friends, loved ones and work.
Kimberly Young, clinical director of the Centre for Internet Addiction Recovery and author of the book Caught in the Net, says that about 5% to 10% of Americans – 15 to 30 million people – may (18)__________ from Internet addiction and the problem may be even greater in countries like China, Korea and Taiwan, where the Internet is even more popular than in the US. It’s a global problem.
Coleen Moore, coordinator of resource development at the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, says she has clients from college age to early adulthood who spend 14 to 18 hours a day online. But Young notes that it’s not just how long people spend using a computer; it’s what they’re doing online.
To help people with their diagnosis, Young developed a test that uses a 20-question survey to (19)__________ levels of Internet addiction. “There are no real drugs for this yet,” she says. “It’s not about medication, it’s more about therapy.” The estimated recovery time varies. At the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, some patients need 30 to 90 days of in-patient treatment, followed by a continuing care program. But Internet addiction (20)__________, like any other addiction, requires lifelong treatment, experts say.
Online gaming is the form of Internet addiction most (21)__________ growing among young people. “Initially we primarily had people addicted to surfing the Web, chat rooms, virtual communities and things like that. Now we are looking more to gaming,” Moore says. “Gaming is certainly one of the things that could get people addicted to the Internet (22)__________ it has such compelling content. But I don’t think games are any more likely to cause Internet addiction than any of the other forms of entertainment”.
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