Are you concerned about addiction to the Internet? Here are the signs and symptoms of Internet addiction.

Behavioral Symptoms of Internet Addiction

No single behavior pattern defines Internet addiction. These behaviors or symptoms of Internet addiction, when they have taken control of addicts' lives and become unmanageable, include:

• compulsive use of the Internet
• a preoccupation with being online
• lying or hiding the extent or nature of your online behavior
• an inability to control or curb your online behavior

If your Internet use pattern interferes with your life in any way shape or form, (e.g. does it impact your work, family life, relationships, school, etc.) realize you may be experiencing the signs of Internet addiction and you may have a problem. (Take our Internet Addiction Test) In addition, if you find that you are using the Internet as a means to regularly alter your mood, you may be developing a problem. It is important to note that it is not the actual time spent online that determines if you have a problem, but rather how that time you spend impacts your life.

Key Signs and Symptoms of Internet Addiction

How do you know if you have an Addiction to the Internet?

Internet addiction specialist, Dr. Kimberly Young has identified 8 major symptoms of Internet addiction. She suggests that if five or more of these signs of Internet addiction apply to you that you consider seeing a mental health specialist about your internet use:

1. Preoccupation -- You think constantly about previous online activity or keep looking forward to the next online session. Some people crave time on the Internet the way a smoker craves a cigarette.
2. Increased use -- You need to spend increasing amounts of time online to achieve satisfaction. A parent who's spending 50 hours a week in a chat room might neglect basic responsibilities such as doing laundry or making dinner for the kids.
3. Inability to stop -- You can't cut back on your Internet use, even after several attempts. Some people can't stop visiting chat rooms while at the office, even though they know their bosses are monitoring the sites they visit.
4. Withdrawal symptoms -- You feel restless, moody, depressed, or irritable when you attempt to stop or cut down Internet use. Some people feel so grumpy in jobs where they can't go online that they make excuses to go home and use the computer.
5. Lost sense of time -- Everyone lets time slip by occasionally while on the Internet. Consider it a problem if it happens to you consistently when you're online and you're also experiencing some of the other symptoms on this list.
6. Risky behaviors -- You jeopardize a significant relationship, job, or educational or career opportunity because of Internet use. One man decided to leave his wife of 22 years for someone he had corresponded with on the Internet for a couple of months.
7. Lies -- You lie to family members, a therapist, or others to conceal the extent of your involvement with the Internet. Someone who's seeing a therapist for depression might not tell the therapist about her Internet use.
8. Escape to the Internet -- You use the Internet as a way to avoid thinking about problems or to allay depression or feelings of helplessness. One CEO constantly downloaded pornography for stress relief at work.

If you're concerned about your level of internet use, take our Internet addiction test and bring the results to your doctor or mental healthcare professional. Read this if you are a parent who is concerned that their child or teenager is addicted to the Internet.

Sources:

• Young, K. S. (1998b). Caught in the Net: How to recognize the signs of Internet addiction and a winning strategy for recovery. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Definition of Internet addiction aka Internet dependency, along with symptoms and treatments of Internet addiction..

Definition of Internet Addiction (Internet Dependency)

Dr. Kimberly Young, a leading researcher into Internet addiction and founder of the Center for Online Addiction defines Internet addiction as:

"Any online-related, compulsive behavior which interferes with normal living and causes severe stress on family, friends, loved ones, and one's work environment. Internet addiction has been called Internet dependency and Internet compulsivity. By any name, it is a compulsive behavior that completely dominates the addict's life. Internet addicts make the Internet a priority more important than family, friends, and work. The Internet becomes the organizing principle of addicts' lives. They are willing to sacrifice what they cherish most in order to preserve and continue their unhealthy behavior."

Gambling addiction isn't diffcult to determine. Here are the symptoms and signs of addiction to gambling.

What are the Signs of Gambling Addiction?

The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists the following criteria for pathological gambling: preoccupation, tolerance, withdrawal, escape, chasing, lying, loss of control, illegal acts, risk of significant relationship, and bailout.

Preoccupation

One sure sign of gambling addiction is preoccupation. Preoccupation occurs when the gambler constantly thinks about gambling. He or she may frequently recall past gambling experiences. The gambler's life is now centered on gambling and how to acquire money with which to gamble. A preoccupied gambler may duck out of certain obligations and spend money designated for other purposes just to fulfill the gratification gained by gambling.

Tolerance

In the same way that a drug abuser can become tolerant of the substance that he or she is taking, one of the keys signs of a gambling addiction is the gambler becoming tolerant of gambling. The gambler becomes tolerant when he or she needs more and more money to achieve the desired sensation, just as a cocaine addict may need more and more cocaine.

Withdrawal: Another Sign of Gambling Addiction

Halting gambling may lead to withdrawal. This withdrawal may not come in a form as physical as the body's withdrawal from a substance, but a gambler suffering from withdrawal may experience agitation and irritability when he or she tries to gamble less or quit gambling altogether.

Escape

Pathological gamblers may also use gambling to escape from the world. They may be attempting to run away from their problems or to combat negative feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, or depression.

Chasing

The gambling addict may also become a chaser of losses. In other words, when the gambler loses money, he or she returns the next day to try to gain it back or get even with the house.

Lying

You may have seen this sign of gambling addiction. Gambling addiction can lead to lying to both family members and friends about how the gambler is getting the money to gamble and the amount of time he or she is spending gambling.

Loss of Control

If you or a loved one has tried over and over again to stop gambling, this may be a sign that you have lost control to your gambling addiction and need to seek help. (more information about gambling addiction help)

Illegal Acts

Many compulsive gamblers become so in need of funds for their addiction that they resort to stealing—through larceny, fraud, or embezzlement—in order to continue their habits.

Risk of Significant Relationships

Another of the gambling addiction symptoms is how the gambler's relationships are affected, including jobs, personal relationships, educational opportunities, and so forth.

Final Gambling Addiction Sign: Bailout

A final symptom of gambling addiction is relying on others for monetary support for financial problems created by gambling.

Sources:

• DSM IV - American Psychiatric Association
• GamblingResearch.org

Take this gambling addiction test to help find out whether you have a problem with gambling or a real gambling problem.

How to Recognize a Gambling Problem

It isn't difficult to determine if a person has a gambling problem. The signs of a gambling addiction or gambling problem are likely apparent to significant others surrounding the person with a gambling addiction. But to the gambling addict who's enmeshed in the world of betting, it's often difficult to see things clearly.

Gambler's Anonymous asks its new members twenty questions. These questions are provided to help the individual decide if he or she is a compulsive gambler and wants to stop gambling. Pathological gamblers usually answer "yes" to at least seven of these questions:

Gambling Addiction Test: Is Gambling A Problem for You?

Do you really want to know if you have problems with gambling. Answer these gambling addiction test questions honestly.

1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling?
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
3. Did gambling affect your reputation?
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses?
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone?
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
12. Were you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures?
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family?
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned?
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry or trouble?
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling?
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble?
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of gambling?
20. Have you ever considered self-destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling?

Gambling Problem? What Next?

If you are concerned about having a gambling problem, even if you just consider if a "problem with gambling," print the results of this gambling addiction test and share them with your doctor, a counselor or therapist, or someone else you trust. Problem gambling can be helped with proper gambling addiction treatment.

Sources:

• Gambler's Anonymous

Discover the psychological and physical causes of food cravings and food addiction.

Addiction to food and food cravings may have something to do with your brain chemistry. People with food cravings may actually have neurochemical and hormonal imbalances that trigger these cravings.

Causes of Carbohydrate Cravings

Low serotonin levels (a hormone responsible for feelings of pleasure and relaxation) may lead to carbohydrate cravings. Since carbohydrates supply the body with tryptophan, this helps to increase serotonin levels.

If you think you may be serotonin-deficient and want to increase your serotonin levels without resorting to a pint of ice cream, James Braly, MD, medical director of York Nutritional Laboratories and author of Food Allergy Relief, suggests trying these alternatives:

• Identify and eliminate suspected food allergens -- paying special attention to gluten (wheat, rye, oats, etc.) and milk products.
• Avoid alcohol.
• Avoid stimulants like caffeinated drinks, cigarettes, and amphetamines.
• Increase your exposure to bright light or sunlight to 1-2 hours a day.
• Get 60 minutes of moderate or moderately intense exercise every day.
• Make sure you get enough deep, restful sleep every night.

Read more about: How to Stop Food Cravings

Other Psychological and Physical Causes of Food Cravings

Dieting. When you ban certain foods from your diet, you are going to crave the very foods you are trying to avoid and may end up bingeing on those foods.

Eating out of habit. Some food cravings exist due to habit. For instance, your family may have eaten dessert every night after dinner while you were growing up. Now, if a dessert doesn't appear every night after dinner, you crave something sweet.

Psychological association. Or maybe the food cravings are all in your head. The mind is a very powerful tool, and mental associations can often trigger a person to crave foods. Passing a bakery on your way home may elicit a craving for donuts, or a billboard ad for McDonald's may trigger a craving for french fries. Certain activities are also linked to food cravings. Watching movies, for example, is heavily associated with eating popcorn and candy, so just the mention of a movie can drum up a craving for junk food.

Comfort foods. Emotions can also lurk at the root of craving foods, especially if you consider certain foods "comfort" foods. If you continually reach for chocolate ice cream every time you're stressed out or upset, you may begin to associate the taste of chocolate ice cream with feeling better.

Dr. Roger Gould, a psychiatrist and the creator of MasteringFood, an online weight loss program that explores the reasons why people have not been able to lose weight successfully, says there are 3 major reasons why food addictions persist:

1. You eat because you're afraid of your feelings.

2. You use food to reward yourself when you're frustrated or unfulfilled.

3. You eat because it helps you assert your independence, to feel safe, or to fill emptiness.

Sources:

• James Braly, MD, medical director of York Nutritional Laboratories
• Roger Gould, MD, psychaitrist and creator of the MASTERINGFood program
• Rader Programs (for eating disorders treatment)

Learn about the six types of gamblers: professional, antisocial, casual, serious social, relief and escape, and compulsive gamblers.

Robert L. Custer, M.D., the first to identify "pathological gambling" and establish a gambling addiction treatment program, identified 6 types of gamblers:

1. Professional gamblers make their living by gambling and thus consider it a profession. They are skilled in the games they choose to play and are able to control both the amount of money and time spent gambling. Thus, professional gamblers are not addicted to gambling. They patiently wait for the best bet and then try to win as much as they can.

2. In contrast to professional gamblers, antisocial or personality gamblers use gambling as a way to get money by illegal means. They are likely to be involved in fixing horse or dog races, or playing with loaded dice or marked cards. They may attempt to use a compulsive gambling diagnosis as a legal defense.

3. Casual social gamblers gamble for recreation, sociability and entertainment. For them, gambling may be a distraction or a form of relaxation. Gambling does not interfere with family, social or vocational obligations. Examples of such betting are the occasional poker game, Super Bowl bets, a yearly trip to Las Vegas and casual involvement in the lottery.

4. In contrast, serious social gamblers invest more of their time in gambling. Gambling is a major source of relaxation and entertainment, yet these individuals place gambling second in importance to family and vocation. This type of gambler could be compared to a "golf nut," whose source of relaxation comes from playing golf. Serious social gamblers still maintain control over their gambling activities.

5. Custer's fifth type, relief and escape gamblers, gamble to find relief from feelings of anxiety, depression, anger, boredom or loneliness. They use gambling to escape from crisis or difficulties. Gambling provides an analgesic effect rather than a euphoric response. Relief and escape gamblers are not compulsive gamblers.

6. Compulsive gamblers have lost control over their gambling. For them, gambling is the most important thing in their lives. Compulsive gambling is a progressive addiction that harms every aspect of the gambler's life. As they continue to gamble, their families, friends and employers are negatively affected. In addition, compulsive gamblers may engage in activities ­ such as stealing, lying or embezzling ­ which go against their moral standards. Compulsive gamblers cannot stop gambling, no matter how much they want to or how hard they try.

Why take an "Addicted to Food" quiz? Some people wonder if they just overeat or if their eating problem is related to food addiction. This food addiction quiz can help determine that.

Please don't forget, this food addiction quiz is not meant to give you a diagnosis. Only a doctor or other healthcare professional can do that.

Food Addiction Quiz Can Provide Insight

1. Has anyone ever told you that you have a problem with food?

2. Do you think food is a problem for you?

3. Do you eat large amounts of high-calorie food in short amounts of time?

4. Do you eat over feelings?

5. Can you stop eating whenever you wish?

6. Has your eating or weight ever interfered with your jobs, relationships, or finances?

7. How often do you get weighed?

8. Do you ever judge yourself by the number on your scale?

9. Do you often eat more than you planned to eat?

10. Have you hidden food or eaten in secret?

11. Have you become angry when someone eats food you have put aside for yourself?

12. Have you ever been anxious about your size, shape, or weight?

13. How many weight loss programs have you tried?

14. List all of the ways you have attempted to lose weight.

15. Do you manipulate ways to be alone so that you can eat privately?

16. Do your friends and companions over-eat or binge eat?

17. How often do you over-eat?

Food Addiction Quiz Results

If your answers to these food addiction quiz questions concern you, seek guidance. The path to recovery from food addiction or problems with food involves recognition, admission, and acceptance. Identification of the problem -- realizing that something is wrong -- leads to recovery. Food addiction help can be found in private therapy and in self-help programs. You can print these questions and share the responses with your doctor.

Sources:

• Sheppard, Kay, From the First Bite: A Complete Guide to Recovery from Food Addiction, HCI, Oct. 1., 2000.

Covers whether food addiction really exists and if a person can be addicted to food. Plus does a significant weight problem equal food addiction?

Can a Person Really Be Addicted to Food?

There's a lot of controversy surrounding the causes of obesity or being grossly overweight. Some believe it's simply a lack of willpower; that a person just won't control what they eat. Others contribute severe weight problems to genetics or lack of exercise.

Now, in the scientific community, there's growing support for the idea of food addiction (being addicted to food). It comes from animal and human studies, including brain imaging research on humans, says Mark Gold, chief of addiction medicine at the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida.

The question, says Gold, is whether food has addictive properties for some people. And that's what the scientific community should decide: whether food addiction is real, can be person be addicted to food and what the underlying psychology and biology might be.

In a medical setting, "we evaluated people who were too heavy to leave their reclining chairs and too big to walk out the doorway," Gold says. "They do not eat to survive. They love eating and spent the day planning their new takeout choices."

Food Addiction Defined

Although there is no official definition of food addiction, Gold defines it in much the same way as other drug dependence:

• Eating too much despite consequences, even dire consequences to health
• Being preoccupied with food, food preparation and meals
• Trying and failing to cut back on food intake
• Feeling guilty about eating and overeating

Gold believes some foods are more addictive than others. "It may be that doughnuts with high fat and high sugar cause more brain reward than soup."

Weight Problems Don't Equal Addiction to Food

Psychiatrist Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse says the research in this area is complicated, but most people's weight problems aren't caused by food addiction. These people are not addicted to food.

Some studies focus on dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain associated with pleasure and reward. "Impaired function of the brain dopamine system could make some people more vulnerable to compulsive eating, which could lead to morbid obesity," Volkow says.

For some compulsive eaters, the drive to eat is so intense that it overshadows the motivation to engage in other rewarding activities, and it becomes difficult to exercise self-control, she says. This is similar to the compulsion that an addict feels to take drugs, she says. "When this occurs, the compulsive eating behavior can interfere with their well-being and their health."

But there are many differences between drug addiction and the intense compulsion for food, she says. Food is necessary for survival, and eating is a complex behavior involving many different hormones and systems in the body, not just the pleasure/reward system, Volkow says. "There are multiple factors that determine how much people eat and what they eat."

Others pooh-pooh the idea of food addiction. "This is a dumbing down of the term 'addiction,' " says Rick Berman, executive director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, a group financed by the restaurant and food industry. "The term is being overused. People are not holding up convenience stores to get their hands on Twinkies.

"Lots of people love cheesecake and would eat it whenever it's offered, but I wouldn't call that an addiction to food," he says. "The issue here is the intensity of people's food cravings, and those are going to differ."

Sources:

• Insulite Laboratories Viewpoints Newsletter, "Intelligence Report: Could the Obesity Epidemic Be Due to Food Addiction? July 2007.
• Nanci Hellmich, Does food 'addiction' explain explosion of obesity?, USA Today, July 9, 2007.

Alcoholism screening test to help determine if you have a drinking problem, alcoholism or alcohol addiction.

How much alcohol is too much? If you consume alcoholic beverages, it's important to know whether your drinking patterns are safe, risky or harmful. Answering these alcoholism test questions will take only a few minutes, and will generate personalized results based on your age, gender and drinking patterns. Your responses are completely confidential and anonymous.

Take Alcoholism Test

1. How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?

   (0) Never

   (1) Monthly or less

   (2) 2-4 times a month

   (3) 2-3 times a week

   (4) 4 or more times a week

2. How many drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when you are drinking? 

   (0) 1 or 2

   (1) 3 or 4

   (2) 5 or 6

   (3) 7 to 9

   (4) 10 or more

3. How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?

   (0) Never

   (1) Less than monthly

   (2) Monthly

   (3) Weekly

   (4) Daily or almost daily

4. How often during the last year have you found it difficult to get the thought of alcohol out of your mind?

   (0) Never

   (1) Less than monthly

   (2) Monthly

   (3) Weekly

   (4) Daily or almost daily

5. How often during the last year have you found that you were not able to stop drinking once you had started?

   (0) Never

   (1) Less than monthly

   (2) Monthly

   (3) Weekly

   (4) Daily or almost daily

6. How often during the last year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because you had been drinking?

   (0) Never

   (1) Less than monthly

   (2) Monthly

   (3) Weekly

   (4) Daily or almost daily

7. How often during the last year have you needed a first drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session?

   (0) Never

   (1) Less than monthly

   (2) Monthly

   (3) Weekly

   (4) Daily or almost daily

8. How often during the last year have you had a feeling of guilt or remorse after drinking?

   (0) Never

   (1) Less than monthly

   (2) Monthly

   (3) Weekly

   (4) Daily or almost daily

9. Have you or someone else been injured as a result of your drinking?

   (0) No

   (2) Yes, but not in the last year

   (4) Yes, during the last year

10. Has a relative, friend, doctor or any other health worker been concerned about your drinking or suggested you cut down?

    (0) No

    (2) Yes, but not in the last year

    (4) Yes, during the last year

The AUDIT questionnaire was developed by the World Health Organization (1993) to screen for harmful or hazardous drinking patterns.

Scoring Alcoholism Test

Questions 1-8 are scored 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4.
Questions 9 and 10 are scored 0, 2, or 4.
The maximum possible score is 40.
A score of 8 or more is suggestive of problem drinking.
For women, the cutoff point should be 4 or more.

Add up the points associated with your answers above. If your AUDIT score is 8 or above, take the results of this test and share them with your doctor.

More information on What is Alcohol Abuse? and What is Alcoholism? Definition of Alcoholism

The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)

The following guidelines, questions, and scoring instructions are excerpted from Babor, T.F.; de la Fuente, J.R.; Saunders, J.; et al. AUDIT: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test: Guidelines for Use in Primary Health Care. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 1992.

How To Use AUDIT

Screening with AUDIT can be conducted in a variety of primary care settings by persons who have different kinds of training and professional backgrounds. The core AUDIT is designed to be used as a brief structured interview or self-report survey. It can easily be incorporated into a general health interview, lifestyle questionnaire, or medical history. When the questions are presented in this context by a concerned and interested interviewer, few patients will be offended.

The experience of the WHO collaborating investigators¹ indicated that AUDIT questions were answered accurately regardless of cultural background, age, or gender. In fact, many patients who drank heavily were pleased to find that a health worker was interested in their use of alcohol and the problems associated with it.

With some patients, the AUDIT questions may not be answered accurately because they refer specifically to alcohol use and problems. Some patients may be reluctant to confront their alcohol use or to admit that it is causing them harm. Individuals who feel threatened by revealing this information to a health worker, who are intoxicated at the time of the interview, or who have certain kinds of mental impairment may give inaccurate responses. Patients tend to answer most accurately when:

• The interviewer is friendly and nonthreatening
• The purpose of the questions is clearly related to a diagnosis of their health status
• The patient is alcohol- and drug-free at the time of the screening
• The information is considered confidential
• The questions are easy to understand

Health workers should try to establish these conditions before AUDIT is given. When these conditions are not present, the Clinical Screening Instrument following the AUDIT questionnaire may be more useful. If interviewing the patient is a problem, health workers may use AUDIT to guide an interview with a concerned friend, spouse, or family member. In some settings (such as waiting rooms), AUDIT may be administered as a self-report questionnaire, with instructions for the patient to discuss the results with the primary care worker.

In addition to these general considerations, the following interviewing techniques should be used:

• Try to interview patients under the best possible circumstances. For patients needing emergency treatment or who are severely impaired, wait until their condition has stabilized. In addition, allow them to get used to the health setting where the interview is to take place.
• Look for signs of alcohol or drug intoxication. Patients who have alcohol on their breath or who appear intoxicated may give inaccurate responses. Consider conducting the interview at a later time. If this is not possible, note these findings on the patient's record.
• If AUDIT is embedded, as recommended, in a longer health interview, use a transitional statement to introduce the AUDIT questions. The best way is to give the patient a general idea of the content of the questions, the purpose for asking them, and the need for accurate answers.
  
  For example: "Now I am going to ask you some questions about your use of alcoholic beverages during the past year. Because alcohol use can affect many areas of health and may interfere with certain medications, we need to know how much you usually drink and whether you have experienced any problems with your drinking. Please try to be as honest and as accurate as you can."
  
  This statement should be followed by a description of the types of alcoholic beverages typically consumed in the population to which the patient belongs (e.g., "By alcoholic beverages we mean your use of wine, beer, vodka, sherry, and so on."). If necessary, include a description of beverages that may not be considered alcoholic (e.g., cider, low-alcohol beer).
• It is important to read the questions as written and in the order indicated. By following the exact wording, you will obtain results more comparable to those obtained by other interviewers.
• Most of the questions in AUDIT are phrased in terms of "how often" symptoms occur. It is useful to offer the patient several examples of the response categories (for example, "never," "several times a month," "daily") to suggest how he or she might answer. When he or she has responded, it is useful to probe during the initial questions to be sure that the patient has selected the most accurate response (for example, "You say you drink several times a week. Is this just on weekends or do you drink more or less everyday?").
  
  If responses are ambiguous or evasive, continue asking for clarification by repeating the question and the response options, asking the patient to choose the best one. At times, answers are difficult to record because the patient may not drink on a regular basis. For example, if the patient was drinking intensively for the month prior to an accident, but not before or since, then it will be difficult to characterize the "typical" drinking sought by the question. In these cases it is best to record the amount of drinking and related symptoms for the heaviest drinking period of the past year, noting that this may be atypical or transitory for that individual.

Record answers carefully, including comments to explain any special circumstances, additional information, or clinical inferences. Often patients will provide the interviewer with useful comments about their drinking that can be valuable in the interpretation of the total AUDIT score.

article references

Some teenagers appear to be internet addicts, spending all their time online. Symptoms to tell if your teenager is addicted to the internet.

Does your teenager seem addicted to the Internet? The amount of time teenagers spend online is a source of frustration for many parents. Initially, parents welcomed the Internet into their homes, believing they were opening up an exciting new world of educational opportunities for their children. However, many parents soon realized that, instead of using the Internet for homework or research, their kids became Internet addicts and were spending hours instant messaging with friends, playing online games or talking to strangers in chat rooms.

Teenagers as Internet Addicts

Maintaining a healthy balance between entertainment media and other activities in their children's lives has always been a challenge for parents. The Internet has made this challenge even more difficult. The engaging nature of Internet communications and interactive games means many children and teenagers have trouble keeping track of time when they're online (a key sign they may be addicted to the Internet.)

Unfortunately, parents and teachers are usually not aware that there is a problem until it becomes serious. This is because it is easy to hide what you are doing online and because Internet addiction is not widely recognized by the medical community. (Mental health practitioners continue to debate whether this behavior is an "addiction," with some preferring to identify it as "compulsive behavior.")

How Teenagers Become Addicted to the Internet

Children and young people can easily become 'hooked' on online activities such as multi-player games, instant messaging, pornography and chat rooms. The most vulnerable children, according to the Computer-Addiction Services at Harvard Medical School, are those who are "lonely and bored or from families where nobody is at home to relate to after school."

Children and teenagers who are unpopular or shy with peers are often attracted to the opportunities for creating new identities in online communities. Boys, in particular, are frequent users of online role-playing games, where they assume new identities and interact with other players. Although playing these games with thousands of other users may appear to be a social activity, for the introverted child or teen, excessive playing can further isolate them from friends and peers.

Read more information about Internet Addiction Causes.

t Addicts: How to Tell If Your Teenager is Addicted to the Internet

Harvard Medical School's Computer-Addiction Services identifies the following Internet addiction symptoms:

Behavioral symptoms

• Having a sense of well-being or euphoria while at the computer
• Inability to stop the activity
• Craving more and more time at the computer
• Neglecting family and friends
• Feeling empty, depressed and irritable when not at the computer
• Lying to family and friends about activities
• Problems with school or work

Physical symptoms

• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Dry eyes
• Migraine headaches
• Backaches
• Eating irregularities, such as skipping meals
• Neglecting personal hygiene
• Sleep disturbances and changes in sleep patterns

Sources:

• Be Web Aware
• Computer-Addiction Services, Harvard Medical School