INTERNET ADDICTION

INTERNET GAME ADDICTION or "Internet Interactive Game Addiction".

A new type of client we may see today is the individual who is addicted to the internet. One name for these clients is "Internet Interactive Game Addiction".

Nowadays an individual may appeal to a therapist because he/ she is living a virtual life, a cyber-life, instead of a real life. His/her cyber game community has 

become her/ his real life. All her needs are fulfilled in her cyber-game community relationships. 

Some clients may have a dependent addiction to their smartphone, ipad or computer.

In some ways this is now similar to an eating-disorder in that we cannot stop eating completely and so we have to meet the addiction and are challenged every 

day and cannot just remove it from our lives. This is what is happening to many clients in our modern society in which it is impossible to completely detach from 

the computer and from the smartphone. These are a part of our modern life today. Social media has become a necessary part of our lives today and our 

connection to the real world.

Just like with other disturbances, there are some common characteristics that bind together these "internet junkies", but each individual is different with his/her 

own specific personality and reason for looking to the cyber-community for a life instead of to real life people and situations.  

Some individuals find it easier to relate to an internet buddy than to a real person who may have demands and requirements. Social media addiction and social 

media friends are often much more accepting than real life people and demands. And if one side is not pleased, you can delete or click on something else.  

There are so many opportunities out there, unlimited and boundaryless.

Once a person is aware of the problem and understands that his/her life is not as fulfilling as he would like, the next step is to plan a solution, a doable solution.

There are two possibilities. One is to detach completely. If the addiction is connected to gaming and interactive computer games, this is easier. It is comparable 

to stop smoking completely. The alternative is to structure a plan of slowly and partially stopping.  

One client of mine who was addicted to interactive games, and spent 20 hours a day on these games was not willing to stop "cold-turkey" completely, 

and so we set up together a schedule that she was willing to keep. She was spending not only her free time on the internet, but her whole life was there, and

even did not sleep enough. She felt she was not alive, literally not living, when she was not online. Her digital identity became her real identity. For each game,

she had a different name. 

She came to therapy because her parents, with whom she was living, were desperate and dragged her to therapy, by threatening to

 take away her computer if she did not go for therapy. While this is not the best way to get a client, it did work.

For the first week, she simply took 5 hours every day to sleep instead of being on the internet. 

Then slowly we added to the hours of real life activities and decreased the hours of computer game time. She was 25 years old and

 wanted to create a real life for herself, so in parallel to the decreasing game time, we worked on her psychological reasons for being so addicted. 

We discussed the stress in her life, the important figures and personalities in her life and her past and present relationships with them. 

After she came to understand that this was her way of creating an "ideal" life and having ideal parents and siblings, she was able to role play and 

work out her problems. It took six months of therapy, but she did it. Today, she plays computer days for three hours every evening, but now has a

 job and is studying, and rationing her computer game time. This is sort of like keeping a diet if one has an eating disorder. In a similar way we worked 

on her support system in real life and on her internal support system, so that her internal resilience was also strengthened and she was not dependent 

only on an external support system and other people. She also keeps a therapy diary in which she writes her feelings, activities, tables and schedules 

of times and activities, and even dreams.

 But human beings are a social animal and so it was important to strengthen her social ties to real people and not only to characters in a game.

In this therapy there are many components: understanding her childhood and relationships and helping her to gain insights as to why she was addicted to 

computer gaming.

In addition to insights, it was important to use CBT and tables, and to organize her life and time differently. It had to be a common effort and 

could not be imposed on her from above. She had to be ready to change and to want to change. It demanded a lot of effort on her part.

Her therapy also included dream analyses and her unconscious sent her messages as to how she was progressing and how she was feeling.

We also used "keg cards therapy" and she chose pictures that represented different events and aspects of her life. She is now involved in activities with other 

real people and is slowly progressing..