Internet Addiction Disorder
by
Addictions have become the new normal. The variety of addiction boggles the mind! If it is possible to eat it, snort it, inject it, feel it, see it, or do there are people addicted to it. How to respond to those who are entrapped by the every-multiplying products is a challenge to health providers and others who care about human health. This includes faith-based organizations. We Adventists were pioneers in development of programs to assist people to conquer tobacco addiction. The more recent addictive agents demand more sophisticated response. For example, the digital world is a new form of addiction that draws in people of all ages and economic levels. The impact on physical and mental health is worrisome to health professionals and should be of concern to religious organizations.
On March 15, 2012, Jason Russell, an evangelical Christian, was filmed running naked in the streets near his Southern California home. San Diego police were called as Russell ran about screaming incoherently. He was taken to a local hospital where, according to a family statement, he was diagnosed with reactive psychosis brought on by exhaustion, stress and dehydration. The story does not end here. According to a recent NEWSWEEK article (July 16, 2012, p. 26) there may have been more to the story than the irrational behavior of an obscure film-maker.
The article goes on to suggest that the negative response to his documentary about the African warlord Joseph Kony may have put Russell into a mental funk. In response he entered an intense swirl of bizarre twitters that, after eight days of sleep depravation and text messaging, he sent a final tweet—a quote form Martin Luther King Jr. “If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” At this point he took of his clothes, went outside, walked to the corner he is reported to have begun slapping the concrete with both palms and ranted about the devil. The video of this event went viral. Russell left the hospital after more than four months of treatment.
The NEWSWEEK report of Jason Russell’s “reactive psychosis,’ a form of temporary insanity, was one segment of a larger article: How connection addiction is rewiring our brains. The article reports that there is now scientific evidence from around the world to document that “…the current incarnation of the Internet—portable, social, accelerated, and all-pervasive—may be making us not just dumber or lonelier but more depressed and anxious, prone to obsessive-compulsive and attention-deficit disorders, even outright psychotic. Our digitized minds can scan like those of drug addicts, and normal people are breaking down in sad and seemingly new ways,” (p. 26). As a result of studies like this and others, when the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is released next year, Internet Addiction Disorder will be included for the first time.
In less than a generation, the NEWSWEEK article observes, we have become people merged with our machines. We sit transfixed before our screens more than eight hours a day. The average person sends or receives some 400 texts p; the average teen some 3,700 texts per month. And many of us suffer from “phantom vibration syndrome.” We feel our cell phones vibrate, when in fact nothing is happening.
It is not the Internet, the technology, nor the content that drives us crazy. It is the effect our electronic gizmos have on our mental and emotional health that has caught the attention of researchers around the world. “Peter Whybrow, the director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, argues that ‘the computer is like electronic cocaine,’ fueling cycles of mania followed by depressive stretches. The Internet ‘leads to behavior that people are conscious is not in their best interest and does leave them anxious and does make them act compulsively,’ says Nicholas Carr, whose book The Shallows, about the Web’s effect on cognition, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize,” p. 27.
An article in the journal Pediatrics noted the rise of “‘a new phenomenon called ‘Facebook depression,’ and explained that ‘the intensity of the online world may trigger depression.; doctors, according to the report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, should work digital usage questions into every annual checkup,” (p. 29).
Elias Aboujaude, a psychiatrist at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he directs the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Clinic and Impulse Control Disorders Clinic, says School of Medicine, “‘I’ve seen plenty of patents who have no history of addictive behavior—or substance abuse of any kind—become addicted via the internet and these other technologies,’” (p. 28). In his studies of our digitized world he wonders some digitized selves should be counted as a legitimate, pathological ‘alter of sorts,’ like the alter egos documented in cases of multiple personality disorder,” (p 30) .
The Gold brothers, Joel, a psychiatrist at New York University, and Ian, a philosopher and psychiatrist at McGill University, are investigating technology’s potential to sever people’s ties with reality fueling hallucinations, delusions, and genuine psychosis, Researchers at Tel Aviv University last year published what they believe are the first documented cases of “‘Internet-related psychosis,’” (p. 30).
Health, for Adventists, has been a traditional strong point in our belief system. Eat right, drink right, live right. The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We promote abstinence from harmful habits and foods. Should we pastors in our sermons address the use and misuse of the Internet and Social Media? Studies document that excessive Web use is detrimental to mental health. Is there need to design a Five Day Plan to Stop Texting? Is there a opportunity to hold retreats that provide help for those who wish to free themselves from their addiction to Facebook? Or ought we get on with our lives and stay merged with our technological wizardry? What do you think?
Lawrence,
Your question about what we can offer as a solution to internet addiction is timely. Our past ability to help people was possible because we offered a solution instead of just a complaint about a problem. I believe the answer is staring us in the face: discovering the power of God. Every former addict I know tells of how the power of God was essential to and inseparable from their ability to break their addiction. Do we in the church know the power of God in our own lives so others will be attracted to it and we can introduce them to God? Are we willing to make that discovery for ourselves. Or, will we be satisfied with mere knowledge about God, but which leaves us powerless?
Pseudo-psychologists attempting to diagnose addictions? Where will this end?
I've traveled several times on two-week overseas excursions with HMS Richards, the elder. He was certainly addicted to reading: one never saw him without a book in his hand, often reading while walking! (the old form of texting while walking?).
Speaking of texting, yesterday's news had some not-so-funny pictures of people stepping off into a subway track and into an open manhole while walking and texting.
The internet is a wonderful tool: it keeps us informed in many ways, but it is our choice how we use it. Instant round-the-world news; communicating with family and friends; lightening the day with forwarded jokes; and of course, such blogs as this. Like reading books, it is in what you choose where the difference lies.
Long ago, SDAs condemned movies and TV; today, they are an accepted form of the best communication used by Adventists. It is not the technology, but our hearts and minds that are forced to make choices that may have not been tested previously when so many sports, games, the theater, etc. were condmened by EGW. Teaching our children how to make choices is far superior to "just saying no" to almost everything that is "worldly"–everything is worldly because this is where we live.
North American Adventists tend (in my opinion) to do whatever they do with zeal and even over-commitment…as if this were a virtue overall. The tendency to "overdo things," even in "doing good" such as scholastics, moneymaking, sharing faith, etc., is a strong and central theme in our culture (I worked for nearly 30 years, full-time and more, interviewing and writing about such Adventist people, and I've been around long enough to recognize that they frequently burn out and leave spouses, church, and faith).
The "push for performance" goes hand-in-glove with what many seem to identify as "addictive behavior." I remember one pale, wan-looking young woman in a Sabbath school class some time back, who proclaimed that she believed that she was compelled by the gospel commission to spend every possible waking moment (and even if necessary engage in sleep deprivation) because of the dire condition of the world and the need to finish proclaiming the gospel. I admired her dedication, but felt extremely sorry for her as a human being. As far as I can tell, she is long gone from the church. Why do so many who set out to do good (on social media, on the Internet, in giving Bible studies, etc.) become so intemperate in doing so? Is this what being a good Adventist requires? I ask these questions, not sure I know the answers…
I believe we all have trouble accepting that God can achieve anything without our help – or at least supervision. We find it very hard to believe that eternal life is a gift, and that God no more demands we over-achieve to keep it than he does to obtain it. Keeping busy reassures us that we are 'doing the right thing' and God is thereby obliged to look after us.
Could it be the constant "push" to "get out and finish the work" or to "witness"
along with the personal stories of those who engage in conversation on a plane, hoping to put in a good work for the Bible and GC SDA theme?
Yes, it has worn out many good pastors who were constantly pushed by their conferences to produce more: members, money, or Bible studies that drove my dad to a hemorrhaging ulcer, several heart attacks and early death at 59–unable to keep the pace.
Elaine and Timo, how well I remember the days when movies were so forbidden in the church…. When I was 19 years old, long, long ago, I taught the one-room school at the Iron Spring Campground near Prescott, AZ. It was pretty difficult to find teachers back in those days. It was also a little hard to take the level of scrutiny and judgement and gossip that accompanied the position. My guess is that not everything has changed.
It was rumored that I had been going to movies at the little theater in Prescott. Someone thought they had seen my car parked near the theater, and that was enough to start the rumor. Things got serious enough for the chair of the school board to call me aside and ask me about it. The theater was next to the public library. The librarian had a car the same make and color as mine (four door, while mine was two door). The car was not mine, but some were quick to believe "the worst." I completed one year of teaching all subjects in all grades for $210/month for nine months, but I chose not to consider teaching for another year. It was a good experience for me and, I think, for most of the students, but the few small and nasty minds made it unappealing to continue. The school closed in the middle of the next year.
It might be surprising to some that I found balance in this (and many other things) in EGW. Somewhere, she mentions that God does not ask us to accomplish more in a day than is reasonable, that it is people's expections and requests that would overload us.
About one pastor I used to mentally wonder who was on the Lord's side, he or I. It seemed as though he would have me (a mother with young children) involved in some kind of church work most evenings of the week. I learned that I did not need to give reasons for declining a request, that often others might not understand or agree with my reasons anyway. The use of my time was between God and me. Still is now at a much older age.
Pastors are faced with an endless list of things that need to be done, and a much shorter list of volunteers to do them. They thus have a tendency to overburden the willing, including themselves. Like you, most of them need to learn to say 'no' to things, including the job of asking others to do those things.
My above comment relates to Edwin Schwisow's post, but I didn't get it in the right place.
It's all about balance in our lives. If you want to know if you are addicted to anything, just try and do without for some time (I am not talking about the necessities of life such as love, food, water, sleep, etc.). If you suffer severe withdrawal symptoms it's time to seek help. Otherwise enjoy and be blessed!
Larry, you have a lot of chutzpa to warm about internet addiction disorder on the internet! 🙂 Obviously all of us who read you are addicts! Jack
Oops, warm=warn!
Jack,
The principle upon that guides AA and other addictive recovery programs is that it takes one to help one. So here we are….
Larry
Larry, are you the same Larry Downing who attended PUC in the early 1960s?
Addictions…how about food addictions as it has to do with health as your last paragraph included… "Health for Adventists, has been a tradition strong point in our belief system. Eat right, drink right, live right." I'd have agree that on paper, this is a correct statement. But in reality, it is not being practiced. Yes, Adventists have had a sense of how to eat if they read the book Counsels of Diets & Foods, but very few understand the need to eat the diet that was presented in the Garden of Eden that has some real health benefits. Adventist have somewhat shunned the nutrition knowledge that was once a forerunner in their health message, now many eat "Vegetarian Dishes" that while they do not contain animal products, their addiction to processed foods is not the healthiest of lifestyles.
All of a sudden, here comes two doctors, Caldwell Esseltyn & T. Colin Campbell who wrote a book & movie about Whole Food / Plant Based nutrition, including undeniable proof on how this lifestyle change helps to minimize and in some cases, do away with health issues. What they have accomplished locally in many towns since 2010 has far surpassed what Adventists had accomplish totally in nutrition health since the 1860's. One web site that includes what Adventists should have been promoting, is found at NotMilk.com. Look at the lower left hand corner of the front page to see that this non-Adventist website contains info on what Adventists believe about health & nutrition.
After WW II, there was a time when the world needed a healthy source of nutrition information in order to avoid addictions to unhealthy foods that all of a sudden, were exploding onto the shelves of stores everywhere. This health nutrition info has been around for over a hundred years, yet people were left without knowing about it because it was never made available to them in an easy to find, and easy to understand system until 2011. Why was this health information allowed to lay dorment for so long?