Internet addiction a mental disorder?
After a slew of studies on the hazards of Internet addiction, it is likely to be included in the next edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorder.
For a generation that spends over 40 hours in a week online, that is apart from work, getting hooked to technology is turning out to be a disease. Having said that, experts in our country believe that while the data holds relevance for the West, India could be the next in the league of nations where Internet addiction is a mental disorder.
Says psychiatrist Dr Vineeta Malhotra Jha, “I don’t think Internet addiction can be classified in the category of mental diseases. For a country like ours, it’s still growing. You can’t call it a disease, at least not in India. Indians are still exploring social media. But looking at other factors like lack of concentration, sleeping disorders and the way it’s affecting relationships, it’s definitely giving rise to psychological problems.”
Apparently, there’s a flood of studies on the Internet that claim hooking to social networks jeopardises one’s social relationships, which experts think can trigger mental disorders.
“The rate at which Internet addiction is growing is alarming. Spending 40 hours online in a week is alarming. In our country online addiction is still new. We still need a concrete data to call it a disease but it will soon turn into one. In the West they have Internet de-addiction centres so it’s definitely a disease there. However, in India, it has started affecting relationships and academic success among adolescents and kids are isolating themselves from the world. This is alarming,” says Dr Deepak Gupta, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
Talking about a recent case where Internet addiction led to serious sleeping disorder, Anu Vohra, mother of 18-year-old Raghav tells us, “He was forever glued to the Internet. He started having frequent headache and the doctor said it could be because of odd sleeping hours.”
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