[tango2150]

Do you think your addicted to Psych Central?
I only come back on here when im feeling really low, i used to be a very active member bnut now its just when i feel like hurting myself or i feel worthless. i was just wondering how many people feel they have to be on here daily to know thatr there is a world out there and theres always someone to give adivce.

[kim_johnson]

Addiction is a funny notion. The DSM replaces the notion of 'addiction' with the notions of 'tolerance' and 'withdrawal'. It is a little tricky to see how that applies to certain things that people like to talk about under the rubric of 'addiction'. For example, can one be addicted to food? One literally does need to eat a certain amount of food. It makes sense that some people could eat food in order to obtain something like comfort and that they could have a problem with overeating in order to get comfort. But it really is unclear (to say the least) that the notions of 'tolerance' and 'withdrawal' are appropriate.

Can one be addicted to different forms of socialization IRL? Can one be 'addicted' to going to a forest and bird meeting, or going to university classes, or going for walks with a particular group of friends? How about if the person feels really very despondent if they are unable to socialize with people who they enjoy socializing with? Does that make their form of socialization an addiction? How about if they decline to socialize with a particular group of people because they would prefer to go to their university class? Does that make attending their university class an addiction?

Similarly, if a person declines IRL socialization opportunities in order to socialize online. Does that make socializing online an addiction for them? It is unclear to me how... Don't get me wrong, it might be that a person would like to make more of an effort to socialize more IRL, but they find themself feeling despondent about that and avoiding socialization IRL in order to socialize online. I understand how that could be something that they would like to work on... But I don't see how talk of 'addiction' is appropriate and / or helpful...

[sunrise]

tango, I'm not quite sure what the right forum is. Here are a couple of ideas:

Subtance and alcohol abuse forum

General forum

[Mouse_]

I have had a problem with other forums. Ones that I first started using when I first got sober almost 6yrs ago and its only been the last couple of monthss that I've finally found the "courage" to let go of them. I no longer believe in what the membership believe in and found i was getting angry at those in the forum because I couldn't face my own aloneness and would rather hang with people I had absolutely nothing in common with then be on my own, but I feel that is now changing for me. This site? No I dont feel the same "pull" to this place, perhaps because I do have now have a good nuturing relationship with my T which I didnt have when I got "hooked" into the other forums. I see this place as somewhere I can say what I feel I have to say and not have to obsess about it all day afterwards.

[Rapunzel]

How many of those who feel they are addicted (or have been addicted to other online support forums) have other addictions?

How many are self-injurers?

I ran across some articles that suggest a relationship between Self-Injury and internet use. A lot of it rings true for me. Some points are:
- that the internet appeals to people who self-injure because the anonymity is comforting to people who struggle with shame, isolation, and distress.
- internet communities may take the place of real effort to work on and develop positive coping, and healthy relationships IRL.
- online participation provides a sense of core developmental needs (such as need for community, intimacy needs, & honesty) are being met.
- if one online relationship goes bad, it's easy to throw it away and find a new online friend.

There may also be a connection with BPD. Those with BPD have difficulty moderating stress, react more intensely to stress, and take longer to recover from stress. They also have been shown to have an enhanced ability to recognize emotional facial expressions, including happiness, sadness, anger, fear, .... This recognition heightens sensitivity to rejection. Not being able to see people's faces here shields us from an overload of sensory inputs, and makes it easier for us to interact. But it also doesn't provide an opportunity to develop skills that we need to interact with others in the real world.

The articles are:

Janis Whitlock, Wendy Lader, & Karen Conterio, The Internet and Self-Injury: What Psychotherapists Should Know. Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session, vol. 63(11), 1135-1143 (2007). Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

Janis L. Whitlock, Jane L. Powers, and John Eckenrode, The Virtual Cutting Edge: The Internet and Adolescent Self-Injury. Developmental Psychology. 2006, Vol. 42, No.3

Personally, I thought that I spent so much time here because it was the only way I could maintain long-term relationships (because I always move away and don't feel like I can ever belong anywhere). But those articles really ring true for me. The internet seems a safer, easier way for me to manage relationships. I have learned some good things, but it also tends to replace trying to have real, in-person relationships. It allows me to maintain and present a controlled image of myself that I like better than the real me. I have tried to be the real me a little more here, and that deepened some relationships while also bringing on a lot of rejection from others, and that has been really hard to deal with.