Internet Addiction is the New Mental Health Disorder

By Dr. Mercola

The next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders(DSM) – often referred to as the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) diagnostic "bible" – is due out in May 2013.

In this latest edition, DSM-5, "Internet use disorder" will be recommended as an area that needs further study.

While you won't be able to be diagnosed with Internet use disorder just yet, recommending it for further study puts it squarely on the psychiatric radar, which means it's likely to be bumped up to an actual mental health disorder very soon.

What is Internet Use Disorder?

As defined by the APA, Internet use disorder includes many characteristics of any addiction, such as experiencing withdrawal symptoms when the object of addiction is taken away, an inability to control its use, developing a tolerance to it, deceiving family members about its use, and losing interests in other hobbies. In this case, of course, the object of abuse is the Internet.

According to the APA, you might have a problem if you display these symptoms:1 >

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