Internet Addiction

Are you an Internet addict? Do you spend hours in front of the computer, surfing the web, playing online games, visiting social networking site etc? If you are doing some of these or even all, then you might be an internet addict.

According to the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, Internet addiction is described as an impulse control disorder which does not involve use of an intoxicating drug and is very similar to pathological gambling.

Signs of Internet Addiction include the following:

• Preoccupation with the Internet - You think about your recent online activity or even think about what you are going to do the next time you go online.
• You spend a lot of time using the internet until you are satisfied.
• You try to control/cut back/stop using the internet repeatedly.
• You feel restless, moody, depressed or irritated when trying to cut down on using the internet.
• You spend more time using the internet than originally intended (for example, you wanted to spend only 2 hours using the internet, but in the end, you spent 3 hours or even more).
• You get into trouble or risk losing your relationship, job, education or career opportunities because of spending too much time on the internet.
• You lie to your family members, therapist, or others to cover up the actual usage of internet.
• You use the internet as a way to escape from problems or to relieve a dysphoric mood (examples like feeling of hopelessness, guilt, anxiety or depression).

As for myself, it's a good thing that I can control myself with internet usage. I make sure I limit myself to a few hours of usage and not too much that I neglect my school work or my that it would affect my daily life.


Internet addiction is quite common nowadays because you can do so many things with the internet. You can surf millions of websites, play online games, connect with people on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Friendster etc, check emails like Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc and many many more. 


Thus, controlling one's self with using the internet is a good thing as too much time spent at the computer/laptop isn't good for one's health. Limiting the usage of internet is one way that will help and you have to enforce it on yourself, if not, it will never work and you carry on using the internet for many hours.

Here's an online Internet Addiction Test which you can take to find out if you are an addict, or soon becoming one.

Are you an internet addict? Write down your comments in the comment box at the end of the post.