By
Gabriella Borter
CINCINNATI
(Reuters) – 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, characterized by a loss of control over internet use and
disregard for the consequences of it, affects up to 8 percent of Americans and
is becoming more common around the world.
“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.”
Psychiatrists
such as Young who have studied compulsive internet behaviour for decades are
now seeing more cases, prompting a wave of new treatment programmes to open
across the United States. Mental health centres in Florida, New Hampshire,
Pennsylvania and other states are adding inpatient internet addiction treatment
to their line of services.
Some
sceptics view internet addiction as a false condition, contrived by teenagers
who refuse to put away their smartphones, and the Reagans say they have had
trouble explaining it to extended family.
Anthony
Bean, a psychologist and author of a clinician’s guide to video game therapy,
said that excessive gaming and internet use might indicate other mental
illnesses but should not be labelled independent disorders.
“It’s
kind of like pathologizing a behaviour without actually understanding what’s
going on,” he said.
‘REBOOT’
At
first, Danny’s parents took him to doctors and made him sign contracts pledging
to limit his internet use. Nothing worked, until they discovered a pioneering
residential therapy centre in Mason, Ohio, about 22 miles (35 km) south of
Cincinnati.
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.
Chris
Tuell, clinical director of addiction services, started the programme in
December after seeing several cases, including Danny’s, where young people were
using the internet to “self-medicate” instead of drugs and alcohol.
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, Tuell said.
“The
brain really doesn’t care what it is, whether I pour it down my throat or put
it in my nose or see it with my eyes or do it with my hands,” Tuell said.
“A lot of the same neurochemicals in the brain are occurring.”
Even
so, recovering from internet addiction is different from other addictions
because it is not about “getting sober,” Tuell said. The internet has
become inevitable and essential in schools, at home and in the workplace.
“It’s
always there,” Danny said, pulling out his smartphone. “I feel it in
my pocket. But I’m better at ignoring it.”
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. The
American Psychiatric Association has labelled gaming disorder a “condition
for further study.”
“Whether
it’s classified or not, people are presenting with these problems,” Tuell
said.
Tuell
recalled one person whose addiction was so severe that the patient would
defecate on himself rather than leave his electronics to use the bathroom.
Research
on internet addiction may soon produce empirical results to meet medical
classification standards, Tuell said, as psychologists have found evidence of a
brain adaptation in teens who compulsively play games and use the internet.
“It’s
not a choice, it’s an actual disorder and a disease,” said Danny.
“People who joke about it not being serious enough to be super official,
it hurts me personally.”
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter;
editing by Grant McCool)