|
WHILE eating toast and drinking tea at the breakfast table, freelance writer Lisa Teo, 26, boots up her laptop and goes online to check her e-mail and Facebook accounts.
When she leaves her home, she takes along her Nokia mobile phone, which she uses to surf the Internet throughout the day.
But the real action happens at night, when she stays online for six hours, from 9pm to 3am.
Her parents have chided her for her almost-constant use of the Internet, but she cannot bring herself to forgo being online.
“I feel frustrated and cut off from the world when I can’t go online,” she said.
Doctors and counsellors who my paper spoke to said they are treating more people like Miss Teo, who display some form of Internet addiction.
An addiction is defined as a compulsion to carry on an activity despite its adverse effects on one’s life, said the doctors.
Dr Munidasa Winslow, a psychiatrist at Raffles Counselling Centre, estimated a doubling in the number of cases he has seen over the past five years.
Dr Adrian Wang, a psychiatrist at Gleneagles Medical Centre, said he now sees a patient addicted to the Internet every two months, compared to none before 2004.
The number of such addicts is rising because of the increasing ease of access to Internetenabled devices such as the mobile phone, Dr Wang said.
The Institute of Mental Health’s National Addictions Management Service said most of the Internet addicts it treated were youth.
Touch Cyber Wellness & Sports, a cyber-wellness education centre for young people, counselled an average of six cases per month in 2008, up from three in 2006.
Dr Winslow warned that Internet addiction could lead to social isolation, excessive fatigue, and disruption to real-life relationships, work and studies.
For example, manicurist Karin Yang, 21, often fought with her boyfriend because he was glued to the Internet eight hours a day when they started dating four years ago.
She lamented: “He would rush home to surf the Internet and play games. And, on some dates, I had to hang around his home while he stayed online.”
Fed up with being neglected, she forbade him from using or even thinking about the Internet during their dates.
Now, he stays online till the wee hours, until he falls asleep on the bed he placed in front of his computer.
Similarly, family members of systems engineer Steven Tan, 27, feel the Internet has isolated him from them.
He rarely joins his family for dinner at the dining table or in the living room.
After work, he spends his time mostly in his room, which is equipped with two 23-inch monitors and two computers. One of the monitors is also plugged to a TV cable, and serves as his TV set.
Sister Christie Tan, 26, said: “It’s fine if he uses the computer. But he needs to spend more time socialising with us and his friends in the real world. I think he needs help.”
Even though his family has advised him to seek help, Mr Tan remains in denial and flatly refuses to do so.
Doctors and counsellors said individuals usually do not seek help for Internet addiction. The problem is usually detected when the patient comes in for counselling for other issues like marital problems.
One way for individuals to find out if they have a problem is to take self-assessment tests on websites like NetAddiction.com, which help determine their level of Internet dependency.
“These tests may not be that accurate for making diagnoses, but are useful for screening people who potentially have an addiction problem,” said Dr Wang.
Those who need help can call:
Touch Cyber Wellness
Counselling Service’s Touchline on 1800-377-2252
Institute of Mental Health’s National Addictions Managment Service’s All
Addictions helpline on 6732-6837
|