Perceptions by Gerry Warner

Do you suffer from IAD? Quite likely some of you reading this do. In fact, I’d be willing to wager that many of you do. Most, of course, don’t even realize it, which makes it all the more deadly. So deadly, in fact, that IAD is expected to appear in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, the Bible of modern psychiatry.

Scary stuff, for sure. But like any other addiction, Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) is a powerful compulsion with great potential for human harm much like the proverbial monkey on the back of more traditional drug addicts. Here’s just one example taken from “The Fix,” an on-line ‘zine (wouldn’t you know it) dedicated to “addiction and recovery straight up.”

Pauline began early as a New Jersey high school student using her “Smart” phone to obsessively surf the web, logging on and off as often as every 10 minutes, no matter if she was at school, at work or in the privacy of her bedroom.  After losing  several jobs and friends, she eventually went into therapy, but her addiction persisted until – like many alcoholics and drug users – she hit rock bottom, and on the advice of a friend, she tried the famous 12 Step Program of Alcoholics Anonymous and began the long painful road to recovery.

The former Net addict eventually started an Internet Addicts Anonymous group of her own and rewrote the AA 12 Steps into “meeting scripts” and attracted fellow addicts, some addicted to Internet gambling, games and pornography but all desperately wanting to lose their addiction. It didn’t work for all of them and many of them suffered “relapses,” including Pauline herself, but in the long run the unique Internet version of the 12 Step Program, including its emphasis on prayer, helped most of the participants to break their deadly electronic addiction.

“It’s hard to explain how much clearer everything is when you’re not on the Internet all the time,” Pauline wrote on her website. “. . . it made my life better in every part. Not just work, but in my social life, my love life, my experience of the world. I even slept better – not just longer, but better.”

In other words, poor Pauline finally “got a life,” or recovered the one she had in the first place, before she succumbed to seductive charms of the Net and all its electronic wiles. Easier said than done, of course.

Reflecting on it all, one thing I’ve noticed in my roller coaster of a life is there is definitely something that could be best described as an “addictive personality.” Luddite though I am, I’m on the computer virtually every day unless I’m doing something more important like climbing mountains or going fishing. And it’s a rare day that I don’t surf the Net. But the fact remains, I’m not an Internet addict and not likely to become one. Why? I suspect it’s because, like most of you gentle readers, I’m not an addictive personality and can keep my various demons and obsessions in order and not let them take over my life. Perhaps we should all offer a prayer of thanks to that.

I seriously doubt that any of you haven’t at one time or the other in your lives encountered the addictive personality syndrome. You know who I mean. The high school buddy, who from the first drink, was on the road to alcoholism. The same applies for that first drag on a marijuana  joint, the euphoria of sex, winning a jackpot, the rush of speed, all harmless enough for most of us, but some just can’t get enough and that’s where the “O” word comes into play – obsession.

Now, I will probably lose many of you here, but as surely as there are personal obsessions, I believe there are also cultural or societal obsessions and I further believe that modern society today with its computers, Smart phones and the Internet is in danger of mass electronic obsession.

I’m sorry folks, but I don’t believe we have to be “connected” all the time.

Wake up! Smell the flowers. Go for a walk. Enjoy nature. Talk to your spouse or any loved one. Play with the dog. Meditate. Climb a mountain. Go to a restaurant with a friend and put the infernal Smart phone (computer) away.

And if you do this, you’ll never have to worry about IAD and you’ll be a better person for it.

– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and Cranbrook City Councillor. His opinions are his own.

Lead image: katmil16.wordpress.com

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