How to Fight Internet Addictions

The amount of time kids spend online is a source of frustration for many parents. Initially, parents welcomed the Internet into their homes, believing they were opening up an exciting new world of educational opportunities for their children. However, many parents soon realized that, instead of using the Internet for homework or research, their kids were spending hours instant messaging with friends, playing online games or talking to strangers in chat rooms. Be Aware.

I believe not just kids are faced with internet addictions. Youu may well find yourself spending way too much time playing an online game, chatting, reading forums, or doing a number of internet activities (including blogging!). Such a situation can be very frustrating. Indeed, many online gamers, for example, hate how much time they spend in the game yet they come back everyday.

How do you beat internet addictions?
1. Houston We Have a problem
As with all addictions, the first step is always to admit that there is a problem. Without doing this, you cannot break your addiction. Here are some simptoms of interent addictions to help you along: (from the simply fabolous Be Aware site on internet addiction)

A.Psychological symptoms
Having a sense of well-being or euphoria while at the computer
Inability to stop the activity
Craving more and more time at the computer
Neglecting family and friends
Feeling empty, depressed and irritable when not at the computer
Lying to family and friends about activities
Problems with school or work

B. Physical symptoms
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Dry eyes
Migraine headaches
Backaches
Eating irregularities, such as skipping meals
Neglecting personal hygiene
Sleep disturbances and changes in sleep patterns

2. What do you do next?

After acknowledging that you have a proble, you can now solve it. A lot of good stuff has been written on how to break away from addictions so I’ll only give (very useful) links.

Be Aware – Internet Addictions. Simply super resource for recognising several forms of internet addictions and combating them.

Break a Work of Warcraft Addiction. Highly recommended and applicable to breaking online game addictions.

Break a Myspace Addiction. Very applicable to breaking social website site addictions.

Defeat a Wiki Addiction. For those of you addicted to wikis. This may be applicable to forum and, possibly, blogging addicts as well.

Seven Steps to breaking Your Addiction. In case your particular brand of addiction isn’t covered above, Dr. Phill’s excellent site is just for you.

Internet Addiction Disorder. Finally, an interesting read arguing that internet addictions are just new forms of older (real life) addictions and, as such, can be fought with old hat conventional methods. For example, a gambling addict is a gambling addict whether he gambles on or offline.

May the force be with you. 😉