Internet Addiction
Internet addiction is overuse of the internet to the point that it interferes with the social life, work life, and personal life of the person. There are five main categories of internet addiction. These include an online sex addiction, online relationship addiction, online gaming addiction, online information addiction, and online shopping addiction.
Many people get addicted to the internet because of unpleasant events that they are currently experiencing in their life. The internet provides gives them a way to alleviate their stress and soothe their minds. Also, the Internet is easy, quick, and cheap to access. This is why many people choose the Internet to help them cope with their problems. Many people that are addicted to the Internet have one or more of the following qualities: anxious, depressed, unsocial, stressed, or past addictions.Some of the symptoms that you might experience if you think that you are indeed addicted to the Internet include being behind in school or work, being less social than you usually are, spending increasing amounts of time online, and defensiveness. The first symptom that many people will feel if they are addicted to the internet is spending a lot more time on the internet. Many times the first sign your friends and family will notice if you are addicted to the Internet is that you are not as willing to spend time with them. You will know that you are doing this because you will make up irrelevant excuses to get out of social gatherings or lunches. Many times you will also be behind on your projects at either school or work. This is because you are ignoring your duties in order to spend more time on the Internet. Then, defensiveness can occur because of the comments that your family and friends are making. Physical symptoms that can occur are extreme sleep deprivation, back and neck pains, and a weight gain or loss.
Even if you believe or know that you are addicted to the Internet, don't feel bad. There are many ways to help you get back on track. The first step to recovering from your internet addiction is to recognize that you have a problem. Once that you have realized that you do indeed have a problem, try to think if your internet addiction problem is the cause of negative events or behaviours that you have experienced in the past. If it is indeed those things, you should instead go to therapy to mediate instead of using the Internet. Also make sure that you tell your family and friends that you have recognized your internet addiction problem and that you are trying to get better. They will be glad to hear that you are trying to get better and will not have a problem supporting you on your road to recovery. Also find if you can get involved with a group of other people going through the same thing as you because it will make recovery go faster and easier.
Gaming Addiction
Video gaming addiction refers to the extreme use of video games in a person's life. Many times video gaming addiction occurs in young males who are not popular when they are in middle school or high school.
There are many reasons that people may become addicted to games. One prevalent reason is because the person is not popular at school or work. So, they decide that they are going to escape their real life problems for their in-game fantasy world. The game could also provide comfort for people going through depression or sadness in their life.
Some symptoms that often occur in people that are addicted to games include spending an large amount of time on the game, thinking about the video game during other activities throughout the day, lying to your family and friends so that you can play the video game more, and going through withdrawal whenever you are away from the video game for a long period of time. A person that is addicted to video games will most likely experience the "thinking about the video game during other activities throughout the day" symptom first. This symptom will prompt the video game addict to spend an increasingly large amount of time on the video game. This symptom will then lead into lying to your friends and family in order to be able to play the game more as well as withdrawal symptoms if you can't play it. Physical video game addiction symptoms can include loss of sleep, appetite, and back aches.
If you feel that you or a loved one has fallen victim to video game addiction, there is still hope. Many resources are available online to help you or someone you know get rid of their video game addiction for good. For example, a program called Online Gamers Anonymous acts just like any other addict program, except that it is for video game addiction. This program focuses on 12 steps to help victims recover from their addiction. The steps included in this recovery program are as follows: admittance to the addiction, recognizing that the addiction has power over the person, realizing the mistakes made in the past, and learning how to live without video games. Many times the best way to heal a video game addiction is to set time limits for how long you can play the game each day.
While both video game and Internet addiction can be easy to get into, it is still possible to get out. Many times people that are addicted to either video games or the Internet just need to realize that there is more to life. This can be shown to the person through increased support from family or making new friends. Increased social interactions will make the real world seem more valuable to the person, so therefore they will be more likely to quit their addiction. I hope that if you know someone that is a video game or Internet addict that you will encourage them to stop their harmful habits.
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