[k00sojin]

I am 16 and I've been using Internet almost every day since the age of 8.
I didn't even realise when I became so used to it I can't survive a day without it now. I compulsively check social media and read all the useless info I find online. I spend about 7-10 hours on the internet daily. Every time I try to reduce the amount of hours spent online I fail. It's been causing me many problems throughout my entire life; poor school performance, irritability, lack of self-care, poor hygiene, spine problems, social isolation- just to name a few. I forget to eat. There are also days when I have to go to school completely sleep deprived just because I couldn't stop looking at my phone. It feels like this is all my fault but at the same time I feel controlled by the internet. It is so stupid to be controlled by a lifeless object.

I really don't know what to do and I'm getting nowhere. I can't beat it myself and my parents are no help at all. I've tried many different techniques and nothing seems to be helping. I don't even know if I'm actually addicted or just weak-willed.

[Skeezyks]

Hello k00sojin: I see this is your first post here on PC. So... welcome to PsychCentral! May I suggest you introduce yourself to the general community over on our New Members Introductions forum? Here's a link:

https://forums.psychcentral.com/new-...introductions/

I'm sorry you are struggling with this. Sometimes I feel as though I've become addicted too. The difference is, I guess, that I'm an older person. And I have very little else to do. So it doesn't really matter.

I'm afraid I don't really have any creative suggestions to offer you. Perhaps some other members, here on PC, will have some to offer. Unfortunately there aren't even a lot of articles, in PsychCentral's archives, on the subject of internet addiction & nothing in the way of self-help articles... at least not that I could find. However here is a link to an article on internet addiction written by our host Dr. John Grohol, Psy.D. The article also provides quite a few links to other articles on the subject plus a link to an internet addiction quiz you can take. Perhaps some of the information in this article can be of some help:

https://psychcentral.com/netaddiction/

I'm not a mental health professional. So I certainly can't speak authoritatively with regard to this. However there does seem to be some thought that perhaps internet addiction is more of a symptom of depression than it is an actual mental illness in its own right. And as I read through the list of ways your life has been affected by your internet addiction, the things you mentioned sound very similar to the ways in which depression affects people. So perhaps what you you're dealing with here is as much related to depression as it is to addiction. And if that is the case, seeking treatment for depression may be more the way to go rather than to focus on what you are experiencing as being an addiction to the internet... just a thought...

My best wishes to you...

[bizi]

I scored a 19 on the quiz. I thought I would have scored higher.
bizi