Addicted to internet

A friend of mine, a student at highschool, told me a few days ago that he thinks he might be addicted to
videogames and internet.

He feels compelled to check his instagram all the time and play on computer more than 3 hours
everyday. And he feels bad about it. He experiences anxiety if he doesn't check, and anxiety if he does.
Those gets in the way of his productivity at school and makes him feel distracted from family when he is
at home.

Yup, sounds like addiction to me.

How the Brain Becomes Addicted:  At the simplest physical level, the brain functions using
a combination of electricity and chemistry. Electric circuits give the brain its speed, but at the cellular
level, the brain works chemically. It is one big chemical machine. In the story of addiction, the main
protagonist — usually a hero, but here a villain — is the chemical dopamine.

 What is behind the addiction: Dopamine is the motivational or “feel-good” chemical, which is

released in our limbic brain by such rewarding experiences as food, sex, and drugs. Dopamine also
helps release the “cuddling” hormone oxytocin, which makes us want to repeat these experiences.
Different levels of dopamine are released by different stimuli. For instance, during an average day in a
normal, nonaddicted brain, the dopamine number hangs around 100. With a good meal, the dopamine
level might rise to 150. With sex or morphine, it might rise to 200; with cigarettes, 225; with cocaine,
350; and with methamphetamines, 1,000. Wow! As you can see, drugs of abuse often produce
dopamine surges that are many times higher than the surges produced by such natural rewards as food and
sex, which is why drugs are so much more powerful and so much more destructive. Addiction starts as a
problem of dopamine numbers in the reward circuitry of our limbic brain.
Coping mechanisms as behavioral addictions
Life isn’t all pleasure, however; it is also filled with danger and pain. As we all experience
pain, we also all develop methods of dealing with discomfort. These methods, or coping
mechanisms, vary in magnitude relative to the amount of pain.

Coping mechanisms produce rewards by relieving pain. Coping is a means to relieve pain or
discomfort by either eliminating it or replacing it with something more comfortable.

It’s tempting to deal with problems by not thinking about them and instead distracting
yourself with other activities.

Side effects of internet addiction:

 Brain fog: Information overload and you may feel confused or disorganized or find it
hard to focus or put your thoughts into words.
 Compulsions. Excessive time spent in online activities such as gaming, trading of stocks,
gambling and even actions often leads to overspending and problems at work.
 Cyber-relationship addiction. Excessive use of social networking sites to create
relationships rather than spending time with family or friends may destroy real-life
relationships.
 Anxiety
 Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished by a
certain deadline. 
 Symptoms of adhd

Whenever Internet addicts feel overwhelmed, stressed, depressed, lonely or anxious, they use the
Internet to seek solace and escape. Studies from the University of Iowa show that Internet addiction
is quite common among males ages 20 to 30 years old who are suffering from depression.

Top 10 signs you are addicted to the internet

1.You spend more than 1-3 hours a day on the internet for purposes other than school or work

2. You lose track of the amount of time you spend, or you are dishonest to yourself about how
much time you have been online
 3. You eat your meals at your desk so as not to detract from your web time

4. You obsess over checking your email and/or social profiles (or whatever your favorite site is)
multiple times every single day

5. You sneak online while working or running late on a busy schedule

6. You experience withdrawal-type-symptoms when you cannot have your internet time- anxiety,
nervousness, irritability, etc.

7. You deny your obsessions over the internet when your friends and family point out your
behavior

8. You see a noticeable drop in your performance in a work or school environment due to
procrastination by going online

9. You withdraw from your real friends and family because you are anxious to find and meet
your cyber friends

10. You have already unsuccessfully tried to cut back on your internet use

Can a dopamine fast cure you of smartphone

addiction?

Dopamine fasting is a method of brain detox I find out is a great strategy to handle side effects of
excessive internet use.

For a whole day I avoided things that gave me pleasure or stimulated me.
This included food, the internet, music, work, artificial light and my phone. It was at the more extreme
edge of this kind of fasting. It’s a mindfulness method when you just spend time with yourself and your
thoughs rather than distract you with check your notification every 5 minutes.

Here’s my day without dopamine. A dopamine fast might not kill you, but you might die of boredom and
make you really hungry.

At the end of experiment I felt my mind more clear, I enjoyed cooked food more and felt more relaxing
than ever

Reference list:

Mastering-the-Addicted-Brain-Building-a-Sane-and-Meaningful-Life-to-Stay-Clean book by Walter Ling

Dopamine fasting: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/22/i-gave-up-everything-i-

enjoy-my-day-of-dopamine-fasting-the-latest-silicon-valley-craze