Officially, “Internet addiction” is not a psychiatric illness. However, the disorder exists whether it concerns the Internet, technology in general or gaming, or is associated with depression and anxiety or other mental disorders. The first special clinics have been opened since 2009.There we found tips for “users”, that is, what to do if we feel “a little addicted” and the suggestions, we admit, seemed funny to us. Then, we looked into whether we are really addicted since there is a Greek Society for the Study of Internet Addiction Disorder.
Abroad, the first clinics in the West that accept even 12-year-old children have opened their doors, one in the United States (reSTART) and one in the United Kingdom (Capio Nightingale Hospital) - but they also exist in Korea and China. We visited the American clinic online, with the aim of undergoing any self-diagnosis tests, and we convey to you with humor what we found interesting.
Now, we laugh
On reSTART, the website of the homonymous clinic in the USA, some medical tips (tech diet tips for users :-) are published. Among them are the following:
- When we eat, we eat. Smartphones and tablets, off
- We do our homework before we open the browser.
- Leave aside the "cutting edge technology" and you will see how you will "unstick": Try playing WoW with a dialup connection and you will remember us
- Mouse and keyboards down. Do nothing for 2 minutes, after visiting https://www.donothingfor2minutes.com/
- Take advantage of StayFocused, a Google Chrome extension that will lock you out of sites that take up your time from real work after you set how much time per day you allow yourself to spend on them.
Now, we're getting serious
However, we understand that this is a serious matter even if it is not a separate category in psychiatry. Those seeking relevant information can be informed extensively by the following article, after our conversation with the aforementioned Greek Society:
The reSTART clinic's channel uploads videos from cured users, in which they show how they transformed their technological skills into something useful in real life:
