MOUSE

[Guest]

Interesting article about internet addiction - from http://www.usatoday.com
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/i ... ouse_x.htm

Researchers publish guidelines for Web addiction
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — To determine whether someone is spending an unhealthy amount of time with their computers, two University of Florida psychiatrists say doctors need to only remember the acronym MOUSE.
Web surfing, e-mailing, instant messaging, gaming, shopping, downloading music and visiting chat rooms become troublesome when they interfere with someone's job or social life, said Dr. Nathan Shapira of UF's Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute.

The challenge for health care professionals is to determine when high Internet use is dysfunctional, and whether unhealthy Internet use is a lone disorder or a byproduct of other disorders, such as manic depression.

Writing in the current issue of the journal Depression and Anxiety, UF scientists propose criteria to diagnose problematic Internet use that they formulated on the basis of their research findings and other available data.

In a related article, published recently in Current Psychiatry, UF researchers presented five questions to help practitioners get a sense of their patients Internet use. The points revolve around the acronym MOUSE: More than intended time spent online; Other responsibilities neglected; Unsuccessful attempts to cut down; Significant relationship discord because of use; and Excessive thoughts or anxiety when not online.

Shapira devised the criteria after conducting face-to-face psychiatric evaluations of 20 volunteers who identified themselves as having problems with the Internet and 17 randomly selected college students with varying levels of Internet use.

Volunteers who called themselves problematic Internet users had, on average, five pre-existing psychiatric problems, such as bipolar disorder, depression or alcohol abuse, he said.

Additionally, they were online more than 30 hours per week, and their nonessential Internet use was 10 times greater than their essential use, such as job- and school-related activities.

But not everyone believe high Internet usage is bad.

"Its very useful for some people to spend high amounts of time on the Internet for work, school and recreation," said Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Communications Policy. "For the vast majority of Americans, Internet use doesn't come at the expense of other activities."

Shapira submitted a chapter on problematic Internet use for an upcoming volume of the Handbook of Impulse Control Disorders, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, at the request of the editors. More research is needed to determine whether Internet addiction should be a separate listing in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is considered the standard for psychiatric diagnoses in the United States, or whether problematic Internet use should fall under the umbrella of impulse control disorders, such as pathological gambling.


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Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[bfez1]

I have cut back my time on the "puter" alot. I was spending way to much time on it at home not wanting to do anything else. Also, for right now I have access at work so when I get home I try to spend my time doing other things. Now, if there is a storm brewing in the GOM, now that's a different story.

[Colin]

Hmmmm.......interesting article there.....I spend lots of time on the computer, especially when there are showers and thunderstorms in the forecast....(have to run down to check the radar, warnings, etc.......) But I'm usually outside with my friends at night...or at school (during the school season) but during the day in the summer is when I'm on the PC the most...

[ColdFront77]

I find being online as often as I am, very beneficial for me. It is the most contact I get with people and I honestly believe that corresponding with all of you and others I met off this site. I don't live near anyone my age (18 to 30). I wouldn't mind having face-to-face friends, but as many of you know it is difficult for me to have conversations with people.

If I had other things to do on a day to day basis, I would obviously do them. There is no where to go, so if I wasn't online I would watch very little TV, can only play board games with my mother so often and play solitaire like I used to do until I went online daily on Monday, March 1, 1999.

[azsnowman]

Until 2000, I was hardly EVER online, maybe 1/2 hour per day, MAYBE...that's when I got hooked on these dang weather boards "LOL!" I try not to spend too much time, well actually, with our business, I can't anyways during the spring, summer and fall, now winter is a different story, if I'm not out shoveling snow or x country skiing, then I'm online a lot PLUS....we do a lot of our research for our environmental assessments online too in the winter.

Dennis