Seattle-based ReSTART center for Internet addiction comes out with a list by which you can check if you have become addicted to the Web. The list contains 11 signs of Internet addiction. If you happen to have three of the symptoms, you can consider yourself an Internet abuser. Having 5 means you’re an addict.
Do you feel a tingling of the nerves from excitement while surfing the Net? A certain ‘heightened euphoria while on the Internet’ is a sign of addiction. If you’re ‘spending more and more time on the Internet’ and not much else of any other activity means you’re hooked. That also means you’ve been ‘neglecting family and friends’ because most of the time you’re in front of the computer.
When you lose the proverbial control over any sense of logic which means that you can’t understand why your motor skills in your hands, arms, and eyes are beholden to your insatiable and uncontrollable desire to enter the World Wide Web, then your ‘failure to control behavior’ is also a symptom that it’s time to go under Internet rehab.
Have you been losing interest in other computer programs and applications such as Solitaire, Paint, and Word? Did you abandon you’re lifelong dream to master the many designs and templates of PowerPoint? If all your interest in the computer now centers on the Net and have gone on ‘withdrawal from other activities,’ then it is a clear sign that you’re an Internet addict.
Your Internet usage has been getting in the way of your office lunch break at a WiFi-connected Starbucks, or finishing your assignment in Advanced Calculus, or completing your dining room mural in cross-stitch. When Internet use is already ‘interfering with your job and school responsibilities,’ then you’re in deep trouble.
Denying that you secretly play Susan Boyle’s YouTube videos over and over again, or stealing time to check on your latest Wall messages on Facebook in between chopping the vegetables and actually cooking them, then you’re already ‘lying about your usage.’ What’s more, you’ve already been ‘feeling guilty or ashamed’ about how much you go online. You’re spiraling into the abyss. Seek help now before it’s too late because it’s alarming that you ‘crave more time online and are restless when away from a computer.’
Other signs of Internet addiction may be visible to the naked eye or affecting your physical self. These include ‘a change in your sleep pattern,’ and ‘physical symptoms such as weight change, backaches, headaches, or carpal tunnel syndrome.’
Via boston.com
