When Danny Reagan was 13, he began exhibiting signs of what doctors usually associate with drug addiction. He became agitated, secretive and withdrew from friends. He had quit baseball and Boy Scouts, and he stopped doing homework and showering.
But he was not using drugs. He was hooked on YouTube and video games, to the point where he could do nothing else. As doctors would confirm, he was addicted to his electronics.
“After I got my console, I kind of fell in love with it,” Danny, now 16 and a junior in a Cincinnati high school, said. “I liked being able to kind of shut everything out and just relax.”
Danny was different from typical plugged-in American teenagers. Psychiatrists say internet addiction, characterised by a loss of control over internet use and disregard for the consequences of it, affects up to 8% of Americans and is becoming more common around the world.
‘Reboot’ programme
At first, Danny’s parents took him to doctors and made him sign contracts pledging to limit his internet use. Nothing worked, he joined the “Reboot Programme’ a pioneering residential therapy centre in Ohio.
“Reboot” patients spend 28 days at a suburban facility equipped with 16 bedrooms, classrooms, a gym and a dining hall. They undergo diagnostic tests, psychotherapy, and learn to moderate their internet use.
“We’re all mildly addicted. I think that’s obvious to see in our behaviour,” said psychiatrist Kimberly Young, who has led the field of research since founding the Center for Internet Addiction in 1995. “It becomes a public health concern obviously as health is influenced by the behaviour.”
The “Reboot” programme at the Lindner Center for Hope offers inpatient treatment for 11 to 17-year-olds who, like Danny, have addictions including online gaming, gambling, social media, pornography and sexting, often to escape from symptoms of mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety.
Danny was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder at age 5 and Anxiety Disorder at 6, and doctors said he developed an internet addiction to cope with those disorders.
“Reboot” patients spend 28 days at a suburban facility equipped with 16 bedrooms, classrooms, a gym and a dining hall. They undergo diagnostic tests, psychotherapy, and learn to moderate their internet use.
The internet, while not officially recognised as an addictive substance, similarly hijacks the brain’s reward system by triggering the release of pleasure-inducing chemicals and is accessible from an early age, Chris Tuell, clinical director of addiction services, said.
Is it a real disorder?
Medical experts have begun taking internet addiction more seriously.
Neither the World Health Organization (WHO) nor the American Psychiatric Association recognise internet addiction as a disorder. Last year, however, the WHO recognised the more specific Gaming Disorder following years of research in China, South Korea and Taiwan, where doctors have called it a public health crisis.
Some online games and console manufacturers have advised gamers against playing to excess. YouTube has created a time monitoring tool to nudge viewers to take breaks from their screens as part of its parent company Google’s “digital wellbeing” initiative.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said internet addiction is the subject of “intensive research” and consideration for future classification.
