Is technology turning us into compulsives?

Internet and mobile addictions should be added to official list of disorders, says shrink

19 March 2008 10:43 GMT / By Katie Scott

Apparently too much texting, gaming and emailing could be a sign that there's something not quite right.

The American Journal of Psychiatry says Internet addiction -including "excessive gaming, sexual pre-occupations and e-mail/text messaging" - is a common compulsive-impulsive disorder that should be added to psychiatry's official guidebook of mental disorders.

Symptoms can include cravings including wanting more and better equipment and software, or more and more hours online, according to D. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.

Addicts (!) can apparently lose all track of time and even forget to eat or sleep. And social isolation is also a symptom.

The report goes as far as describing three-dimensional, multiplayer games as "heroinware".

Block points to problems in South Korea where 10 people died in internet cafés from cardiopulmonary-related deaths - at least seven of which were reportedly due to online gaming.

The government there has now trained more than 1000 counsellors in the treatment of internet addiction, Dr Block adds.

And Block says that addicts are often resistant to treatment, there's significant risk to them when the problem is confronted and patients have high relapse rates.

Turning off our computers now...