“Excessive emailing and texting may indicate mental illness”

No, we’re not referring to Shane Warne..

Jerald Block, writing an editorial for the American Journal of Psychiatry, said “internet addiction” was a common disorder that deserved inclusion in a health professionals manual of mental disorders.

Excerpts from editorial:
It is a compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder. Excessive text messages and emails, excessive gaming and sexual preoccupations and were all evidence of having the disorder. All symptoms sharing the following components:

1. excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time
2. withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible
3. tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use, and
4. negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, and social isolation

Let me just say before you read on, I am in no way making fun of any mental illness or sickness. Any public reference, such as his, is a positive step to helping people understand – and in turn getting help for those who need it. I think Dr Block makes a good point about having it recognised.

However, I thought it was possible to turn that list around and compile another list:

Top 5 Reasons I’ve suffered “Internet addiction Disorder” with excessive emailing and sms

1. Excessive text messages from services flogging their promotional offers even after you’ve “opted out”.
2. Receiving excessive text messages saying “How are you?”, or “What are you doing”, making it impolite (?) to not spend our money or credit to answer ongoing open-ended questions and conversations.
3. The anger and tension experienced when a computer is inaccessible, like say, when you move and your service provider promises you’ll be back up and running within two days – which then stretches out to twenty phone calls and three weeks without access to your online business.
4. Then the lack of understanding of your associated withdrawal symptoms suffered when they’ve lost their sense of time.
5. The unfathomable promise that they’ll email you when your internet is back up… (Now let’s think about that for a moment – kinda hard to get that email). Perhaps that could be summed up by negative repercussions above?

Ok – putting the soap box back away now

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