Exploring Internet As A Process Addiction

The twentieth century has brought the technology era upon society. The internet is an invention that has become a wide used tool for people all over the world. Since the invention of the cell phone, the internet is even easier to access. According to Association between number of cell phone contracts and brain tumor incidence in nineteen U.S. States, “Cell phones were introduced to the U.S. in 1984 but were not widely adopted until the mid-1990s. By early 2000, the number of subscribers to cell phone services had grown to an estimated 92 million in the United States and 500 million worldwide” (Lehrer, S., Green, S., & Stock, R. G. p. 505). This is a statistic from over fifteen years ago, and the amount of cell phone users has not stopped growing.
IA is considered a process addiction. According to Exploring Internet Addiction as a Process Addiction, a process addiction is “compulsive-like behaviors associated with cravings, urges, and disruption of social and occupational functioning” Other process addictions are “gambling, Internet use, sex, exercise, eating, and videogames; of these, only gambling disorder is included in the DSM-5” (Kristy L. Carlisle. P. 172.). This means that there is not much official research and information about IA, and IA is not yet considered an actual psychological addiction, yet has similar causes and symptoms as substance
According to Santos, “Researchers have linked IA with depression, attention deficit and hyperactivity, generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder, dysthymia, alcohol use disorder, eating disorder, obsessive compulsive personality disorder, borderline personality disorder and avoidant personality disorder, and insomnia” (Treatment of Internet Addiction with Anxiety Disorders: Treatment Protocol and Preliminary Before-After Results Involving Pharmacotherapy and Modified Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.). A person who suffers IA may also suffer from one or more of the other disorders. The issues all play into each other and can make it much harder to recognize. IA can cause or be a symptom of many different disorders, which makes it worse on the victim and much harder to fight. Another study, Internet addiction in the island of Hippocrates: the associations between internet abuse and adolescent off-line behaviours, found that “[i]nternet addictive behavior correlates highly with an increase in anti-social and aggressive behavior” (Fisoun, Virginia, et al. p. 43.). IA is closely related to anti-social and aggressive behavior. These behaviors all negatively affect each other and make the symptoms and recovery much more difficult. These types of behavior issues need to be addressed, not masked. The issues brought with IA can affect someone’s psych and lead to self-harm or put others in