By Ami Schmitz and Jessica Hopper
Rock Center
Brett Walker says he knew he was hooked to using his computer when his virtual life nearly destroyed his real life. He was unemployed, had started to neglect his personal hygiene and says he had no friends all because of his online game of choice, “World of Warcraft.”
“Whenever I went online, it really was like getting high on a drug,” said Walker in an interview with Dr. Nancy Snyderman. “I mean, I would log in and I could just feel the dopamine start coming as soon as I was typing in my password and stuff, just waiting for it to log in.”
Walker, 28, said that he started playing online games when he was 11. By his early twenties, the Texan devoted up to 16 hours a day to “World of Warcraft,” a game that has millions of players around the globe. As he got better at the game, he said, his life away from his keyboard crumbled.
“Whenever I was on the computer I would feel great,” said Walker in an interview airing Thursday, Nov. 8 at 10pm/9c on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams. “I was in this whole other world. I was excited. I was happy for that brief moment, but whenever I’m lying in bed at night, I would always … just think about how that day I hadn’t accomplished anything, about how I wasn’t what I wanted to be in life and that I was really, you know, miserable."
Was Walker suffering from a true addiction to the Internet or just a bad habit? An emerging area of research has developed to study those who are obsessed with logging on to the World Wide Web. Scientists say brain scans of heavy Internet users reveal changes in both the size of certain parts of the brain as well as its function. They say it is possible to become addicted to the Internet.
“The new research, whether it's imaging research or genetic research or other kinds of research, [is] pointing to a biological disposition, something in our biology that makes it easy for us to fall in love with a video game or with the Internet. And for a proportion of us, this love affair can start looking like an addiction,” said Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, who runs Stanford University’s Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Clinic and Impulse Control Disorders Clinic and recently completed one of the largest studies to examine how common problematic Internet use is in the United States.
“When we talk about problematic Internet use, one common complaint is that there's nothing really different about it, that it's similar to, you know, when radio first came around or TV or even novels,” Aboujaoude said. “But I really do believe the Internet is different. It's different in that it engages you a lot more. You're immersed in it. It talks back to you. It's also different in terms of its penetrance, how incredibly common it is and how much access we have to it.”
Aboujaoude's research found that up to 13 percent of Americans experience some degree of negative impact from overuse of the Internet.
“Examples of this negative impact include things like damage to their personal lives because of their online patterns of use or feeling, that they cannot go for an extended period of time without logging in and that in and of itself has negative consequences,” he said, adding that other countries, such as China, have made the study of excessive use of electronic media a priority.
Chinese researchers recently compared the brain scans of average Internet users to the brain scans of Internet obsessives. The small study found changes in the areas responsible for decision-making, emotions, and self-control – the same areas that are affected in substance abusers.
Seeking treatment
Walker chose to get help for his problem, turning to reSTART, the first residential treatment program in the United States that helps people with Internet obsessions. Founders Hilarie Cash and Cosette Rae are among a growing number of mental health professionals who believe in the controversial theory that it is possible to become addicted to the Internet, just as some people get hooked on drugs, alcohol or gambling. Their program focuses on people hooked on online games, chat rooms, even blogs.
“We’re talking about a lot of young people who come to us who’ve actually gotten addicted at age five, six, seven, eight,” Cash said, “and so their brain development has been profoundly impacted because of that early onset of addiction.”
This year the American Psychiatric Association added “Internet Use Disorder” to the appendix of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the standard text of the profession. The APA also said that more research needs to be done.
But critics question whether these behaviors constitute a real addiction or are just an unhealthy obsession.
WATCH VIDEO: Rehab focuses on treating Internet addicts
“Not every passionate interest in life is an addiction,” said Dr. Allen Frances, a psychiatrist and professor emeritus at Duke University who has been fighting efforts to add the diagnosis of Internet addiction to the manual.
“I’m not arguing against the fact that there’s a small group of people who suffer horribly from this,” Frances said. “What I’m arguing is that when you introduce a diagnosis into the system, it’s very likely to take off in directions you never imagined, and become a fad.”
“Where do you draw the line?” he added. “Why not include work addiction, sex addiction, shopping addiction, golf addiction, model-railroading addiction?”
The founders of reSTART say that Internet addiction is real and dismissing it is similar to the way some originally viewed drug and alcohol abuse.
“Isn’t that what we did to substance users, like, 40, 50 years ago?” asked Rae. “And we’ve now had plenty of research to show that drug and alcohol addiction is real and exists.”
Rae and Cash’s treatment is a major commitment, consisting of residential therapy for a minimum of 45 days in a seven-bed facility outside of Seattle, Wash. It is also expensive – and the nearly $400-a-day treatment is rarely covered by health insurers.
From young adults to middle-aged women, a range of people arrive to unplug. They often enter the program sleep-deprived, depressed and with a string of professional and personal failures tied to their inability to log off. In addition, they’ve often ignored health issues, such as having either lost or gained significant amounts of weight.
The withdrawal process can be brutal, Cash said.
“It takes about three weeks for the brain to make its adjustment and go through withdrawal and then after about three weeks, they start to be much more relaxed,” he said. “They’re not so depressed and anxious.”
Cash and Rae said that part of what turns computer use from a thing of enjoyment to an addiction is the “social factor.” ReStart patients say they find it easier to make friends with people online, than in person.
“We're social animals, right? So they find that in these games they can connect with people and try to meet their social needs that way. And that's a huge element in the addiction,” Cash said.
For Walker, the relationships he’d developed through online gaming were so important that he said it impacted the timing of when he got treatment.
“[I] actually waited until the end of the season....to leave so I wouldn’t just leave my teammates hanging. So I told them, you know, once this season ends, you know, I’m gone,” Walker said. “That’s how much my friends meant to me online. I mean, in real life, you know, my commitments didn’t mean anything to me.”
Stacey, a Washington woman who recently completed the reSTART program, said that her continued connections with friends she met online have led her to relapse. She is hooked on the AOL card game, Spades.
NBC News
Stacey, addicted to online card game, Spades.
“I still am friends with the online friends that I had made,” said Stacey, who asked Rock Center not to use her last name. “That probably is part of the problem, yes. But it’s one of the parts that I don’t know if I’m willing to give up. It’s sad to say.”
The teacher and mom of two said that she spent so much time in bed playing Spades that it led to divorce from her husband of 18 years. When Stacey moved out, her two daughters stayed with her husband. Stacey said that her obsession cost her at least five years of experiencing their childhood.
“When I’d go out shopping with the girls at the mall, all I could think about was going back and playing on the computer again. So, even if I was physically present, my brain was still on the computer,” Stacey said.
ReSTART has treated 500 people since it opened in 2009. To help patients get off line for good, therapy at reSTART focuses on socializing and patients are encouraged to go outside after having often been trapped for years alone in rooms with computers.
But Cash and Rae say that re-entering an increasingly digital world can be hard.
“So I don't think that abstinence is possible, not from all the technology in this modern age,” Cash said. “They can define what are those aspects of Internet use that are problems for them and be abstinent from those and then define for themselves how they're going to use computers and the Internet in a way that is healthy and sustaining,” Cash said.
Editor’s Note: Dr. Nancy Snyderman’s full report airs Thursday, Nov. 8 at 10pm/9c on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.
Leave a Comment:
If you think about it how Car Stereo's are probably addicting, what is usually the first we do after we start our car? turn on the stereo.
The first thing I see most people do these days when they get in their car is use their cell phone.
Can you get treatment on line....?
very good Amunaka
The ironic thing is that we are viewing this on the internet... NBC, you are a bunch of enablers!
lol
Give me a break. Somehow, the taxpayers will foot the bill for this latest 'environmental disease' that will be their excuse for all manner of idiocy.
Oh God ....come on man get a life ....go outside..... walk under some trees .....listen to the birds sing .....Help? You've got to be sh!tting me ....
Really baffled by this. I use the internet for email, news, Facebook and Amazon. I don't use it for anything else as it is an unreliable invention that causes enormous levels of frustration and irritation.
The Web has been around since the mid 90's and the damn thing still has tons of quality and reliability problems - freeze ups, Not Responding issues, slow response times, stupid dialog boxes that pop up and ask if you want to continue running scripts on a page (no user should EVER see these! Programmers should make them default to NO), and tons of other problems.
Also perplexed why people want smart phones or tablets. Do you really want to be connected to the net all the time? That, to me, would be a total nightmare. Let Silicon valley perfect these idiot boxes (computers) first and THEN ask me if I want overpriced crap like a smart phone.
That's because you are a normal, healthy individual. People that get addictions are rare and frequently have chemical imbalances in the brain that make them more likely to become addicted to substances, gambling, or other activities, than normal people.
Hard for normal people to understand sometimes.
$400 per day is a very good deal. I know of a program at a fairly small hospital (not top of the line) for psychiatric patients that was $1000 per day. Many insurances would only cover a small part of that and this was for people who were severely ill, meaning suicidal.
"Virtual" addiction is REAL. I left my husband because of his addiction to online gaming. He wouldn't shower or brush his teeth for entire weekends at a time, was irritable and angry most of the time he didn't play. I am a professional, motivated person who couldn't believe this was happening in my life. It is real and only going to get more publicity as more addicts come out.
darn, i knew something was wrong with me.
My mate use to accuse me of being an internet addict - and yes, I would pour 40+ hours a week into what I was doing, along with working 40+ a week in an analog job.
Then, one day, the most amazing thing happened - an envelope appeared in the mail, along with all the regular bills, except this particular envelope did not contain a bill - but rather a check.
My months-on-end of hard work and harsh accusitions were suddenly forgotten when that single check paid not only all the bills, but bought my mate a new H3.
Addict? You bet - addicted to growing my income!
This technology sucks! It can make you neglect yourself. I can't afford a new computer. Maybe, that is good because the one I have can't get videos which is the real thing keeping you glued to the computer. They seem to think that internet addiction is a disease like Schizophrenia. Internet addiction is no disease. The addiction goes with the territory. It will happen to anyone with the money and know how for these things.
I found that NOT having internet access at home has brought peace back to my life. I can always log on at the coffee shop or elsewhere, but my home is my sanctuary now.
Dear Sweetie:
I'm glad some people have kept their sense. Otherwise, I'm afraid of what the 21st century could turn in to.
For $400 a day, I'll come to your house and unplug your computer after an hour or two each day.
It's strange that no comment has addressed the fact that these games (and the internet itself) were created for exactly this purpose. Addiction = easy money. How many gamers DON'T seek "treatment" but continue paying for expensive subscriptions years on end? It is precisely what keeps these corporations in business. Don't think there are any viable "treatment" options out there besides quitting cold turkey.
I know from observation that internet addiction is a form of self-medication for people who are dissatisfied with their real lives so they need a fantasy where they can succeed.
I'm never one to argue an addiction isn't real. I think people who do are narrow-minded and devoid of empathy.
That said, $400/day for "treatment" of internet addiction is bananas! I myself have phases of web addiction, but if I felt bad enough that I needed "treatment," I'd book a week in a mountain cabin over shelling out $400/day to some rehab center. But that's just me. Based on their descriptions, these addicts have plunged much further than I ever have into the cyber world, so who knows, perhaps the rehab is vital.
I do wonder if the rehab center wouldn't be better used for people trying to kick, say, opioid dependency...
It does strike me as ironic that we're all commenting on a news article about web addiction... It's not like we gain anything from it!
I have the sequel to Justin Cronin's The Passage sitting 3 feet away, on my coffee table, for god's sake, and look what I'm doing?
Someone come "treat" me please...
Think about it.. The Internet may have been around longer than humans.. sometimes feel its like a portal to anotherworld.. or netherworld perhaps.. to try to not go as far as saying its an after-life. an example would be.. our planar existence here is what.. 100 years as the goal & we all know half of which we are subconsciously asleep & much of our life in a blink is much like a fantasy dreamlike state in the galactic overview anyhow. in this existential gasp we just live & die.. over & over again until the population of 'hell' reaches a threshold that creates the siphon of technology.. think of The Internet as a spiritual dam embracing the souls of the damned creating this magnificent web of conflict, or titled Addiction in this case.
first off, America setting the example as usual.. lettin Kindergarteners use The Internet is ridiculous.. its undoubtedly a culture of chaos which eventually ends up in realer-than-real scenarios such as the Aurora Batman incident where u read about pregnant mothers who bring their 3-6yo kids to an violent midnight premiere & even get a role in the end-credits. Americans are so desensitized to everything its doesnt stop them from enjoying the next late-night show.. i for one live across The Pacific from the incident & its enough to never make me want to enjoy myself in a movie theatre again.. even tho here in Japan we are blessed with not having to worry about Guns, being in a high-rise mall theatre in the middle of an Earthquake would suck too. this is the element of what spins the vicious cycle.. in plain terms people do not care about consequence anymore, nor do they know anything about it cuz their minds are filled with garbage their whole lives.
thus imho (in my honest opinion) comes a greater issue of the cause, which is the Battle of the Flame Trolls. this comment above by Fred Evil inspired me to reply here :
"And you know one thing that doesn't help? Being a condescending twat. Belittling others with issues, especially when they are trying to HELP others while you mock. You have your own issues (we all do), and I doubt you'd be adult enough to list them on a website so others who also suffer can get help too.
Feel free to prove me wrong."
this is a quote from the Universal Brotherhood & how Mother Teresa explained its these kind of kind thoughts of thoughtfulness that truly ring & resonate forever.. compared to these other vile cum-shot regurgitated-spit of the average Troll. sorry for belittling Trolls.. somewhat fictional fairy characters but they have just become to real for me here, & just cant come up with a better comparison without dehumanizing these smug, self-righteous people that are somehow capable of parenting people online whom they have never met or ever will. but sadly in that one glitch, that one chance in a lifetime, they chose to insult & prey on the vulnerable thin-skinned individual.. & well to somehow capture that to an enlightened being it is known there is no worse consequence then having to live the rest of your life out as that un-helping person.
thus the vicious cycle.. this is the heart of all addictions. offend to be offended. treat others like they treat you, & not the other way around.. this one-way galactic spiral of Humanity. back to my thesis above.. be surprised that your physical body will be gone in a few finger-folds of years.. but your snarky infantile comments will remain floating somewhere out in space & time in infinity even if this so called CPU of The Internet is destroyed & all memory lost.. because that is Your memory-chip of existence. sadly, its how you want to be remembered isnt it.. which fuels the celebratory machine.. like before if we wanted to see an old TV show wed have to make an extra effort, whereas The Internet is like an ironic compendium of all of these 'ghosts'.. as recently i watch greats like Bill Bixby & Herman Munster in absolute awe just convincing myself there is just no way these amazing actors have left The Earth, the scary immortalizing of The Human Spirit.
so thus The Internet being this spiritual sinkhole or simply a black-hole encrusted with human filth & sins.. it is ultimately a tool like anything other.. back to the very first blade caveman carved out of stone. the question is, how will you wield it.. will u just go around policing everyone trying to take down every illegal post you can find in your lifetime.. will you use it to simply stab down & defeat your losses.. or will you use it as an intergalactic compendium of knowledge & bliss.. & most importantly how will you teach it when your young are ready, only when you in mind is ready to accept greater truths.
anyhow, i hear the fecal-troll-matter being slung my way so will leave it at that.
@Nojho your hearty response was inspiring too.. i realize its hard to break out of ones mundane hardship-filled life to lend out a helping hand, cuz often, as the rule of thumb we all know 9/10 times you will be backstabbed & if not put in a victimized state under the foot of the victim. this is why as in the main topic $400 a therapy session is sinful in itself.. i think more & more across The Internet we are seeing enlightened minds & well if u need to make a living here, the motiff has become 'name your price' in more of a friendly donation.. as at the end of the day we blindly do not accept Money is the source of all problems anyhow. now yes, this is pretty much a suck mines if suck yours relation.. but to move beyond all flesh & blood & become the first human to understand is a unrewarding yet spiritually complex journey we are all gifted with.
in another words, dont really take this as a pat-on-back failure.. im a victim myself tbh (to be honest) & i dearly sympathize to any being whom feels they have become too smart even for themselves to a point of alienation.. & have other ppl tell you elsewise just in hopes to keep you at their level of sanity so they dont have to report or fear you.. but within the precaution indeed this is a very sad, sad sick world.
thank you if u had the time & will to read this far,
to all my Kindred Spirits Online.. feel 4u broz.
cheerz
Ziro Japan
For all of you doubters, this really is an addiction. I am speaking from experience. I have noticed more and more that when I'm bored, I start playing games and then I just keep going. Trust me, it's hard to break. How is it any different than all you people who have to be on your phones all the time, either talking, texting, watching movies, etc?
I wrote a book about such an addiction, The Fantastic, Fabulous, Funny and Factual Follies of a Facebook Friend (Infinity Publishing, 2010), by Darcy H. Lee available at amazon.com.
This is the very first time I saw a story that really hits hard close to home for me dealing with my son. This describes exactly how my son is, addicted to video games, staying up all night, inability to focus and to be responsible; just like that mother that showed the patched hole in wall; well over the years, that's what happened in my home, too, but a lot worse than what they showed there! I was hoping that this insanity would go away and he would grow out of it, but unfortunately, as he is now in his 5th year of college, he still is hanging on by a thread in anything substantial in his life, because his virtual life runs him!
It's funny how they blanket it as internet and video game addiction - but from the sound of it, it sounds more like a World of Warcraft addiction. That is one lethal game! I don't even think Final Fantasy Online has such an addict ratio of gamers - nor have I heard of really that many other games that get people latched on for 16 - 48 hours.
And let's look at addiction but the things in our life that brings us joy to the point of repetition. We're all addicted to something in our life, and it's common sense that everything else will fall apart if you devote all of your time to one thing.
Of course it's addictive! It combines vast resources of knowledge and information, communication, socializing, and entertainment, from the farthest reaches of the planet. For some people it's wonderful, and others its damning. If you're an alcoholic, the problem is with you, not the alcohol.
Fu*king pussy.
I, along with many others I'm sure, resent being called addicts because we play online games. Although I'm sure that some of those I meet do little else with their life, the majority lead 'normal' lives, work, hold down a job, have families, carry on social lives, etc. Some of us, are disabled, in pain, unable to cope with the burdens of life, and online gaming helps us to put aside that pain for a little while, and takes up the time we would otherwise just be laying in bed unable to do anything else.
Sure, I could knit, and I do; I could read, and I do; I could watch mindless soap operas all day, which I don't; but I prefer to interact with other people, keep my mind busy and active, solving problems in the game, figuring out strategy for fighting some of the 'bosses' in the game, etc. It keeps me young, it keeps my mind active, it brings me happiness, and it helps me to bear the pain.
I could write a book on my experiences online and perhaps it would help you to understand better something you've chosen to put down. There are all types of people online, just as there are in 'real life', but only some of them are addicts, and they would probably be addicts at whatever they chose to spend their time with. Please be careful before you stereotype online gaming personalities. Just like 'real life' there are all types of personalities. Some people gamble, some play golf, some race sports cars. We like to solve puzzles, meet mental challenges and enjoy the social interaction of playing online games. I have no idea why people waste hours watching football games, but, hey...whatever rocks your boat.