They’re coming to take you away, ha ha!

According to the Ottawa Citizen, obsessive e-mailing and text messaging could soon be classed as an official mental disorder. The notion stems from a soon to be published editorial in the American Journal of Psychiatry which makes the case that Internet addiction is a common compulsive-impulsive disorder which should be classed by physicians as a brain illness.

Apparently, Internet addiction can include "excessive gaming, sexual pre-occupations and e-mail/text messaging". If you find that all of the above apply to you on a daily basis, please check yourself into your nearest mental health clinic immediately.

A psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Dr Jerald Block, reckons that, like alcohol and drug addicts, Internet junkies get cravings, urges, withdrawal symptoms, and are always looking for bigger and better quality hardware and software to feed their appetites and increase their buzz. The doc says that about 86 per cent of Internet junkies have a form of mental sickness, characterised by users losing track of time spent online and neglect of "basic drives," like eating or sleeping.

Not all psychiatrists agree with Doc Block though. Last year, British psychiatrists writing in the Advances in Psychiatric Treatment journal, reckoned that only between five and ten per cent of Internet users were actually addicted, with the majority of hardcore addicts being middle aged desperate housewives.

Block also notes that the problems are at their most severe in Asia, namely in China and South Korea. He claims that there have already been several Internet gaming related deaths in cyber cafes caused by heart and lung failures [lung failure? - Ed] and that the Korean government has trained over 1,000 counsellors to help people deal with their addictions.

Beating an Internet addiction is apparently not something to be taken lightly though. People often relapse into their old Web habits and some could even require medication or hospitalisation.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/18/addiction-internet-mental