China: Web addiction will be listed as Psychiatric Disease

[wyq614]

中国青年报11月15日报道 中国可能成为世界上第一个把上网成瘾列为一种临床精神疾病的国家，并计划率先向世界卫生组织申请登记。中国卫生部预计明年将接受一种有关网瘾的新标准，它是在中国心理学家研究的基础上制定的。它将把网瘾归为与强迫性赌博或酗酒类似的病态行为。

Chinese Youth Journal 15 Nov. China may be the first country in the world that lists web addiction as a psychiatric disease and is planning this application for the WHO. The health ministry plans to accept a new definition for web addiction, the definition will be set by the Chinese psychologists, they may define web addiction to some behaviour like alcoholic or gambling.

在北京军区总医院成立中国首个网瘾治疗中心的陶然医生说：“中国处在该领域研究的最前沿……我们拥有足够多的病例，这样我们就能进行正确的科学分析。”他说，他通过4年时间对3000多名网瘾患者进行了研究。

Dr. Tao Ran, who established the first web addiction cure centre of China, says "China stays at the front in the research of this field (web addiction), we have sufficient cases and so that we can carry out correct scientific analysis.", according to him, he has taken more than 3000 cases for research in 4 years' time.

中国拥有世界上最多的上网人口，网民多达2．53亿，其中许多年轻网民沉迷于网络游戏。通常大城市和偏远乡镇的网吧坐满了年轻人，他们紧盯屏幕沉浸于跟对手玩家的激战当中。

China has the largest web population, the number of Internet users has reached 253 million. Among them, some young users get addicted to online games, generally, the cybercafes of big cities or remote country are full of youngsters who stares at the screen launching wars against other players in the games.

陶医生说，他把自己的研究数据与美国专家的研究做了比较，在美国，网瘾尚未被认定是一种疾病。他认为上网成瘾者每天花6．13个小时上网（非用于工作），这个数字与美国得出的一天6．14小时的评估一致。由互联网媒体公司ＩＡＣ进行的调查显示，受访中国年轻人有42％感到上网成瘾不能自拔，相比之下，在美国这个比例是18％。由中国互联网络信息中心的调查显示，将近半数的中国网民年龄在18～30岁。

Dr. Tao says that he has compared his statistics with that of American researchers. In the USA, web addiction has not been listed as a disease, he considers that web addicts spend 6-13 hours' time online (exclude online working), close to America's 6-14 hours' time. According to the survey result from IAC, 42% of the youngsters participated in the survey showed addict towards Internet, but in the US the percentage is 18%. According to the Internet Information Centre of China, about half of Chinese Internet users are between 18-30 years old.

据中国估计，大约10％的年轻网民受到网瘾困扰，其中约70％是男性。陶医生说，网瘾只是更深层心理障碍表现的一种症状，几乎所有网瘾儿童都存在行为问题，网瘾加剧了他们的问题。他说，在上网成瘾者不上网时，有可能转入犯罪或吸毒以克服孤立感，一些人选择了自杀。

It is estimated that in China, about 10% of young Internet users get troubled with web addiction, among the 70% are male. Mr. Tao says that web addict is actually a syndrome of a profound psychological problem, almost all the children with web addict have some problems with his/her behaviour, and web addict makes the problems more serious. He says, when the web addicts are offline, it is possible that they would turn to committing crime or drug abusing to overcome the sentiment of loneliness, and some chose to suicide.

他的网瘾治疗中心收治过患有抑郁、害怕和不愿跟人接触的网瘾患者，许多人存在睡眠障碍。他们不愿与家人或朋友交流，喜欢蜷缩在电脑屏幕前逛聊天室或打暴力游戏。他的患者普遍有家庭问题。

His Web Addiction Treatment Centre has ever admitted some patient that suffered from depression, fear or unwilling to contact others. Many of them have problems with sleeping. They don't wish to communicate with their families or friends and they feel like sitting in front of screen chatting or playing violent computer games. The families of the patients generally have problems.

与毒品不一样，互联网不会造成生理的依赖性，陶医生称他治愈患者的成功率为70％左右。他说：“患者的增加不如前几年那样快。不过，2005年开设的网瘾中心当时是中国首家。现在全国已有几百家网瘾治疗中心了。”

Unlike drugs, Internet will not produce physiological dependence. Dr. Tao says 70% of their treatment resulted in success. He says, the increase of the number of patient is slower than several years ago. But the centre (that I established) in 2005 was the first in China, and now, there has been several hundred of such centre all over China.

[somethingfunny]

Wow, that is really fascinating. I agree....sometimes the Internet can become addicting to the point where it interferes with normal functioning in life. Take a look at the time I'm posting this and the time zone I live in!

Before about 10 years ago, most people could never dream going to their living room and with no effort or fee involved, talking to a Chinese citizen currently living in Cuba about the weather. Incredible! But with millions, if not billions of people now online and communicating and posting content, you won't ever run out of new things to explore online....and it's a danger and a real problem for people in every country these days.

Self control is the only way to cure it. Personally, I take my computer apart and put it in my closet every Sunday evening. If I need to use the Internet during the week I can use a library, but I'll start missing class if I've got web access 24/7.