What if we simply prefer to find spaces where we can be anonymous online to share some deep stuff that people in the real world would be put off by hearing?

There aren't enough therapists, support groups, or close relationships to offer the same supports we receive online. It is often a social taboo to call a person in the middle of the night, or even email someone whose boundaries do not welcome certain types of emails. However, online support groups such as this do allow us to share our feelings and even categorize them. More often than not, we will receive a supportive reply back. That social support is something often not seen in general in-person social circles.

Research has shown that positive social support is a protective factor against many sequelae, including behavioral problems. Google Scholar indexes over 17k articles between 2015 and 2019 regarding the benefits of social support: Google Scholar

What is often left unsaid are the different types and methods of social support that are being used, including (but not limited to) phone calls, texting, in-person visits, therapy as a form of social support, pen pals as a form of social support, in-person groups, and Internet use (most notably online support groups, IMs, PMs, social networking platforms, etc.).

Social support, as I've understood it in my readings of peer-reviewed literature, have two broad categories: (1) Instrumental and (2) Emotional. Instrumental social support includes things like friends helping you with a move, family members helping you with money or food, therapists helping you with tools for mental health treatment, public service resources helping you with offsetting certain costs such as Medicare Part D help, and professors or peers at school helping you study for an exam. Instrumental social support may help a little with the buffering of mental and/or physiological symptoms, including behavioral problems. However, it would appear that emotional support is more protective against certain sequelae, including behavioral problems.

Emotional social support includes things like sharing personal stories with one another, offering words of comfort to someone, giving someone a hug, holding someone like a child or spouse or partner when in pain (physical or mental), discussing personal areas of distress, sharing secrets to help alleviate stress, showing empathy, showing and receiving love, feeling connected (not necessarily bonded) with others, feeling bonded with close others, etc. It's not mere advice-giving, which is instrumental in nature. Sometimes therapists offer two roles - instrumental and emotional support, and sometimes therapists are limited (for whatever reason) to only offering instrumental support (typically, the stoics). Online support groups such as these offer a bit of both, but they mostly offer emotional support in ways that do not typically occur in real life, via email, via phone, or sometimes via therapy. Being hidden behind a pseudonym helps with sharing deep stuff, and receiving feedback from others who are struggling is a way of showing emotional support. Emotional support may not ameliorate the symptoms we are experiencing, but it can reduce the intensity of such symptoms, such as not feeling as sad anymore (i.e., symptoms) or not feeling as prone to self-injury or suicide attempts (i.e., behavioral problems).

I haven't read all the literature on this, but for me, when I'm dealing with adjustments related to moving to a new place, being new and alone, not having a therapist or treatment team for a while, and getting used to new ways of life, my symptoms tend to flare up in different ways, and I almost always reach out via the Internet to my distal friends and family on FB or via phone, my mentors via email, and anonymous others via support groups like this one. This is the only online support group I'm on. All the other online platforms I use are merely to connect with those I know in real life or to read blogs from people I admire in real life. Being here, however, allows me to get it all out - especially the things that would be considered inappropriate or too scary to share with others in real life, including sometimes therapy.

So, my feelings of being "addicted" to PC is probably stemming from my own feelings of being disconnected with the real world in some way, and of loneliness.

There are research articles and other literature on "compensatory relationships," which is what I see sort of happening with me online. I'm finding compensatory relationships with anonymous persons online to meet my emotional support needs primarily (and some instrumental needs at times), due to a lack of real life relationships with known persons. Although the strength of compensatory relationships are not as strong as relationships with those we are desiring to bond to (e.g., family, bosom buddy best friends, close friends, and closer-than-average acquaintances), they help a little.

I'm probably just compensating, and I don't need to beat myself up with an "addiction" label. Still, it helps to know that I'm not alone in this struggle, and to be cognizant of my lack of real live social interactions.