an adiction is anything that the person NEEDS and craves and it interfers with their daily life and funtioning.

One persons symptoms of adiction does not always match anther. Its mostly an individual thing. For example if someone is missing work to be on line, always thinking about on line instead of doing their grocery shopping, paying their bills and so on and they get upset or irritable when they can't be on line then they are most likely adicted.

But for example I don't work except for vollunteer work and running my support group when I have enough members to warrent paying the 100 bucks library fee of using one of their auditorium rooms once a month or when the library study rooms are available otherwise we are a phone contact group and on line contact group.

I spend anywhere between 1 hour to 12-15 hours a day on line depending on my schedule and what I am doing in my real time life. Alot of that time is playing games while waiting for emails, pms, instant messages, reading message boards of my on line groups but on line is not my life. I don't let my time on line rule or interfere with what I am doing in real life time.

Spending alot of time on line does not always mean you have an adictiion to being on line. There are alot of people who are on line 9-5 everyday because it is their job to work on computer programs and so on.

Only you can decide how much internet is too much for you and if it is interferring with your off line life.

Hang in there