The Reality of Internet and Computer Addiction
Compulsive Internet usage seems to produce the same type of tolerance and withdrawal as other addictions. There is also growing research evidence supporting the conclusion that many Internet users, perhaps as many as six percent, are being negatively impacted by their Internet use. It seems that you can develop a tolerance to Internet usage, as you need greater time online to access more stimulating material. Although Web sites need not be sexual in nature in order to become addictive, they often are for a great number of Net-heads. Of those who meet the criteria for Internet addiction, 62 percent regularly logged on to pornography sites and experiencing sexual arousal while online. Spending an average of over four hours per week viewing material on the adult sites, 37.5 percent reported masturbating while online! For these Internet users, the 'Net offered a high degree of stimulation and sexual excitement.

Losing Control
Fred's story reflects a typical scenario of a man whose sexual preoccupation became dangerous when combined with the power of the Internet. Fred is a 29-year-old professional with a very promising career. His excessive, self-defeating Internet use pattern demonstrates how sexually addictive the Internet can be.

Fred is on the corporate fast track to money and success, contemplating becoming engaged to his girlfriend. Everything seems great except that Fred is addicted to pornography on the Internet. When I first met him, he was spending several hours during and after work viewing pornographic pictures, sometimes until 3:00 a.m., only to be at work again by 7:00 a.m. He compulsively rented adult videos and planned his business trips around having access to the 'Net or adult-video stores. Sometimes he would buy sexual products over the 'Net and has even found himself "ripped off" through his credit card.

Fred spent hundreds of dollars on Internet access while surfing on the 'Net for hours, searching for naked women. He described himself as obsessed, out of control but unable to stop. He'd tried half-a-dozen times before, but with no lasting results. Fred finally came to see me, responding to our ad and Web site discussing Internet addiction issues. He no longer felt he had control of this part of his life, and he was scared. He could control every other aspect of his life, but this one was too powerful to handle. Through psychotherapy and a therapy group, he has been getting the needed help, and his life is turning around. For Fred and others, interaction with the Internet can become so sexually stimulating that it leads to an addictive pattern of use.

Is it Physical or Psychological?
The distinction made between physical and psychological addictions is probably irrelevant and certainly impractical. We are holistic beings. This artificial distinction between the mind and body has little practical validity for understanding how addiction works because minds and bodies are actually integrated, functioning as one. There are distinct chemical pathways that connect virtually every part of the body including the endocrine system to the central nervous system. In short, we are what we think, what we feel and do. Everything we experience impacts our psychological and physical health and vice versa. Health then, is the integration of the interrelationship between all parts of us, including the less-tangible spiritual side. Actually, disease is the absence of that healthy integration, so one experiences a "dis-ease." Addiction can be a chief symptom of that disharmony.

The psychological dependence that occurs when someone becomes habituated (tolerant) to a behavior or substance is very powerful. Almost all the people I treat for addiction feel a need for the behavior or substance that controls them. In fact, many of the people I have interviewed state that they need their Internet use in much the same way. For those, the Internet use has become out of control, taking a central, dysfunctional position.

Perhaps no case better expresses the power of Internet addiction than Sandra Hacker's. She made front-page news as the first well-publicized legal case involving Internet addiction. She was charged with neglecting her children while spending all day and night online. She had apparently left her children to live in squalor while she locked herself in a nice, clean room with a new computer and modem. This case drew a lot of publicity because it broke the country's collective denial about the possibility of addiction to the Internet, and it showed how the Internet might negatively affect children. The story demonstrated that the power of Internet addiction could override even the most basic instincts of protecting children. While it does reflect an extreme example, her case is probably less unique than we think. Since then, I have been contacted numerous times to consult with individuals about Internet addiction and child custody issues, along with cases where Internet addiction has affected marriages, jobs, finances and relationships.

We Get High From What We Do
Behaviors that are potentially addictive include work, sex, gambling, food, exercise, shopping, television, computers and the Internet, in addition to drugs and alcohol use, by no means an exhaustive list. There are as many possibilities as there are potential pleasures. It is my contention that the basic psycho-biological process of addiction is fairly similar, regardless of the initial source of the "high." What do all the above behaviors have in common? What makes them addictive? And why do some individuals become psycho-physiologically dependent on such behaviors while others do not? Though these are behaviors that most people engage in on a regular basis without any problems, combined with certain circumstances, an addictive pattern can emerge. Often this addictive pattern is not appreciated until the addiction has taken serious hold and there are obvious negative consequences. The Internet is probably only the most recent seemingly innocuous behavior added to a long list of other behaviors that can be addictive. In fact, a cable modem installer recently commented to me that he has never seen such strong reactions from people as when their Internet service is interrupted. He described a significant withdrawal from the Internet (compared to TV) when customers' Internet access had problems.

The Use and Abuse of the Internet
Why is the Internet so addictive? To answer this question, let's look for a moment at the nature of gambling, which may have a lot in common with the Internet. Few would argue that gambling is potentially addictive for some people. Just look at the presence of Gamblers Anonymous (GA), support groups for family members of gambling addicts (GAMANON) and the numerous programs sponsored by private and governmental agencies. Even state lottery commissions and casinos offer assistance! In Connecticut, there are advertisements for counseling glued onto the lottery machines! Clearly, gambling addiction is a real phenomenon, and there are those individuals who find themselves gambling well beyond their means, in a compulsive and self-destructive manner. This behavior has tremendous implications on the quality of relationships and health. People lose house, car, family and job, all the while continuing to gamble. They may be in a casino, betting on a sporting event, playing the stock market, lotto or simply playing bingo — all for the purpose of receiving that "hit." All of these behaviors most likely involve an elevation of the neurochemical Serotonin, experienced as a temporary sense of exhilaration. This process is short-lived, but very intense, pleasurable and habit forming. Of course, most people like to experience pleasure but want to stop unpleasantness, repeating experiences they see as pleasurable. Normal life seems dull compared to the excitement of the addiction "hit," and many addictions get started from a general sense of boredom. Boredom can present a very uncomfortable feeling, a sense of being ill at ease, from which many people try to escape. I believe that many self-destructive behaviors get their start this way. They are initially an attempt to solve a problem (boredom), but in the process, the addiction develops, beginning a new problem.

We don't like to feel uncomfortable, and we don't have time for bad feelings, which require us to think, feel and perhaps do something that might take some effort to change our lives. This can be a hard thing for many of us to do. The reasons why this is so hard are complex. It probably involves an expectation in our culture that we shouldn't have to feel badly at all, and if we have to feel badly, it should not be for very long. Addictions may, in part, be the result of a society that has lost its ability to heal itself, a society with no tolerance for pain and no patience to change. Addictions are a way of separating us from our inner experience, which is done with the implicit approval of everyone we meet, including the media. No one wants to feel anything, least of all, anything uncomfortable. So we go on and try to numb our discomfort in a wide variety of ways, with the Internet as the latest. That is not to say that the Internet is completely bad; it certainly is not. It can make a huge contribution toward improving the quality of our lives. However, the Internet's addiction potential is simply the opposite side of the coin and represents a dialectic of the good it can do.

The Longest River: Denial
Denial is a hallmark of someone who is engaging in this addiction pattern but has not accepted that his or her behavior is out of control. This denial is a psychological defense mechanism that enables a person to continue to engage in a behavior in spite of relatively obvious negative consequences on his or her life. It's a way to protect oneself from seeing or feeling things that are unpleasant.

In the case of the gambling addict, there may be repeated warnings that his or her spouse will not tolerate continued spending of household savings, job loss and constant harassment by creditors. In light of this, the gambling addict will still deny that he or she has a problem with gambling, believing personal actions are still in complete control of the gambler. However, denial permits one to distort reality, a very powerful psychological defense; it can have devastating consequences on our lives, and the ability to disregard such negative consequences while continuing the behavior is a hallmark of denial.

Denial is present, to some extent or another, in all addictions. It's necessary, in the development of an addictive process, to experience a sense of denial while the addiction is beginning to take hold. Otherwise, we would not continue with the addictive behaviors. Because of denial, the impact of our negative behavior is never fully appreciated until the consequences become so overwhelming that they can no longer be ignored. This is sometimes referred to as "hitting bottom." People may continue their behavior indefinitely, with no recognition of the negative consequences of their actions, in spite of numerous personal disasters. Often an individual will not seek help for a specific problem, unless the person has recognized that he or she is no longer in control of the situation and needs help. This usually happens at a point when the negative impact of addiction has become grossly obvious and denial is broken. Recognition of loss of control is a process that cannot be rushed. Each person has to discover his or her own time frame for how and when to deal with addiction. This, of course, can be very frustrating for family and friends of the addict, who often notice the problem long before the addict does.

Negative consequences of addictive Internet use vary considerably. I have been consulted on Internet cases in which employees have been caught using their work computers for personal Internet access (in some cases wasting considerable company time and/or downloading sexually related material onto company-owned computers). In some cases, individuals could be charged with sexual harassment as a consequence of exposing fellow employees to sexually explicit material against their will (even accidentally!). There are also numerous cases even resulting in child-custody investigations of couples with significant marital or relationship problems due to Internet abuse!

Every day I hear or receive stories of people who are getting into trouble with their online behavior at home or at work. We as a society, along with the mental health and addictions professions, are in collective denial about the extent of some the real and potential problems with Internet use and abuse. Although it is not clear how widespread compulsive Internet usage is, it is clearly a growing problem. I fear that as broadband access increases from the current 6 percent level, we will see an increase in compulsive Internet use. The increase will occur because just as the faster modes of absorption of a drug increases the addictive potential a drug, broadband Internet access provides the "hit" in a much more rapid manner, enabling a faster psychological impact.

Few people, except those who have had a problem, recognize the power and attraction of being online. This is changing rapidly, however. And although it is probably not an epidemic, I have little doubt that millions of people are experiencing a negative impact in their lives because of compulsive use of the Internet, and I believe that number will continue to grow. Recognition of both the dark and light side of the Internet will enable us to be served by technology, instead of ensnared by it!

Dr. David N. Greenfield is a practicing psychologist and business consultant, with specialties in family psychology, business coaching and consulting, employee assistance and addictions treatment. He is founding partner of Psychological Health Associates, LLC and CEO of The Center for Internet Studies (Virtual-Addiction.com), which conducts research, training, consultation and educational services on Internet use and behavior. Dr. Greenfield's research and clinical work on Internet addiction has appeared on nationwide television and press. Recognized as one of the leading authorities on Internet use and abuse, Greenfield is author of Virtual Addiction: Help for Netheads, Cyberfreaks and Those Who Love Them.

Dr. Greenfield currently serves as president of the Connecticut Psychological Association, and maintains his home and consulting practice in Connecticut. Dr. Greenfield may be contacted by e-mail at drgreenfield@virtual-addiction.com or 860/233-9772, ext. 14.

This article was excerpted in part from the book Virtual Addiction: Help for Netheads, Cyberfreaks and Those Who Love Them (New Harbinger Publications, 1999) by Dr. David N. Greenfield.

©1999 Dr. David N. Greenfield