?What is an addiction

What is an addiction ?What is an addiction This is a very good question - one that even mental health professionals cannot unanimously decide upon. This is evidenced in the fact that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM), the mental health reference and resource manual, has shifted its view on addiction from a "personality disturbance or disorder' to a 'substance-related' and 'impulse-control' disorder (1). More often than not, the average person tends to think of a substance-related addiction, such as alcohol and drug addiction, which has clear, physical attributes. We can usually recognize other addictions, the so-called impulse control disorders, such as compulsive gambling, compulsive stealing, etc. Which leads to the question - is Internet addiction a real addiction? Is it fact or fiction?

Addictive behaviors can be defined as "learned behavioral responses that represent an attempt (a maladaptive attempt) to cope with an unpleasant environment" (2). Obsessive Internet use can be described as an addictive behavior in that it sometimes involves the user escaping from the day-to-day struggles and unhappiness of his or her real world. But that could also describe day dreaming. Researchers have tended to look at the amount of Internet usage to define whether or not a person is addicted. The problem is that people, and researchers, have no idea what constitutes "normal" Internet usage, so how can "abnormal", or "pathological" Internet usage be quantified? The questions are many.

Some researchers, such as Dr. Kimberly Young and her organization, go further than this. Young believes that Internet Addiction is a true disorder, and she has done studies to this effect. However, even Maressa H. Orzak, founder and coordinator of the computer addiction service in McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass., "reports that every patient seeking treatment evidenced at least one comorbid psychiatric disorder" (3). This information infers that Internet addiction may not be its own addiction, but rather merely a symptom of another psychiatric problem.

Regardless of whether Internet addiction is fact or fiction, whether its nomenclature should be changed or whether it is a symptom of something else, it is a "real" problem for those who suffer from it
نهاد عبد الصبور محمد موسى