Relatively few people are afflicted by this; most people are using [the Internet] in a healthy sort of fashion, and that has to be kept in mind.
The disorder is apparent when the person is getting in trouble in life from the computer use. So either they’re failing out of their work, they’re failing out of their school, or they’re becoming socially isolated, depressed, and aware themselves that they have a problem ... .
Almost always there’s some other issues; comorbidity approaching a hundred percent, meaning they have diagnosable depression or anxiety disorder, or OCD or attention deficit disorder, any number of different diagnoses. And it always becomes unclear which came first, the computer use or the other disorder.
When people present, they’ll talk about the depression, or they’ll talk about the anxiety disorder, but they’ll rarely discuss the computer use unless it’s picked up by the practitioner.
Jerald Block, MD
My Practice
Board-Certified Adult Psychiatrist
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