Center caters to people hooked on Internet
By Aydrea Walden
Seattle Times staff reporter
When Tracy Weiss started going to
Redmond substance-abuse counselor
Jay Parker, he thought Weiss might be
an alcoholic. She had binged in her
early 20s and was using destructive
behavior to hide from memories of
physical and sexual abuse.
But it wasn't alcohol she was running to.
Instead, Weiss found solace in the
blue-green glow of her computer
screen. After buying a computer for her
two sons three Christmases ago, she
had spent up to 18 hours a day in chat rooms, ignoring her children,
ages 11 and 14, for her more than 100 online relationships.
Weiss, who lives in Portland, is one of about 300 people who have come
to Internet-Computer Addiction Services in Redmond in the past two
years. The for-profit center opened in 1999 to treat a growing concern
over computer and Internet "addiction" and is one of a few centers in the
country that specialize in treating a condition that remains controversial.
When the center opened, Internet addiction was met with skepticism by
people in counseling and psychiatric fields. Since then, more research
has surfaced, but the condition has not received the acceptance some
professionals think it deserves.
Parker and Hilarie Cash, a Seattle mental-health counselor, opened the
center after they met at a conference and realized how many of their
clients' lives were being affected adversely by the Internet.
Cash defines Internet addiction as "using the technology of the Internet in
an addictive way." Some people become addicted to online games, some
to chatting and forming relationships, some to day trading, online
gambling, pornography or cybersex. Others, she said, live their lives
through the keyboard and monitor — shopping, accessing information,
making friends, maintaining relationships and finding support when those
relationships end.
Kimberly Young, executive director of the Center for On-Line Addiction in
Bradford, Pa., said between 5 and 10 percent of Internet users are
addicted to their machines. That number is similar to addiction rates
among people who drink alcohol or gamble.
Cash and Parker described the people who have come to them for help:
• The 21-year-old student at Washington State University who played an
online fantasy game for 36 hours straight, had a psychotic episode from
the lack of sleep and ended up in a psychiatric unit.
• The 29-year-old in middle management who played an online game at
work until he got fired and ended up living back home with his mother.
• The manager who was fired from two computer companies because he
couldn't stop playing Dungeons and Dragons at work.
• The 16-year-old who became suicidal when his parents took away his
modem.
Though Internet addiction is considered a clinical disorder, debate
continues as to whether professionals are using the right words to
describe it.
Dr. Richard Ries, an addiction psychiatrist and director of the addiction
program for the University of Washington's psychiatry department, said
calling excessive Internet use an addiction is "really stretching the word."
Ries said what some call Internet addiction is more accurately called a
compulsion. The difference, he said, is this: Addictions involve putting a
foreign substance into the body and having that substance affect the
body's chemistry.
He said the same logic applies to people labeled food, shopping or
gambling addicts. Many drug- and alcohol-recovery programs can fix
compulsive behavior, helping to further confuse the words, Ries said.
Cash and Parker say they use the same techniques for treating Internet
addiction as they do any other addiction.
Parker uses a 12-step approach like the one used in
Alcoholics Anonymous, which includes admitting the
problem and soliciting the support of a group. Cash said
she concentrates on helping patients learn what
triggers their behavior and develop alternatives to
excessive computer use. She also encourages clients to
attend 12-step meetings.
Because it's convenient, accessible and anonymous,
Parker said, the Internet makes it possible for people
who otherwise wouldn't seek out gambling or promiscuous sex to find
such outlets.
"Somebody who'd be too embarrassed to go into an adult-video store
isn't embarrassed at all to go online and hunt up porn," Parker said.
Even something as harmless as being a well-informed citizen can be
overdone on the Net.
"I have people who are information addicts," Parker said. "They can do
that (find information) in other venues, but at a certain point, the library is
going to close, and they're going to get kicked out."
Online, people can hunt indefinitely.
Parker said there is a correlation between the amount of time spent
online and an increase in depression. Computer addicts are known to
develop a tolerance level and mimic drug and alcohol addicts — and
other compulsives — when they try to quit, he said.
"There were physical symptoms of withdrawal," Weiss said of her
experience. "Shaking, upset stomach, nausea, headaches, anxiety. It was
pretty intense."
Weiss said she's better now and restricts her time online to about two
hours a day. She attends addiction meetings, is redeveloping her
relationships with her sons and has spoken with talk shows and
magazines about her addiction.
Other local counselors and psychiatrists say they're seeing only a few
people with potentially dangerous computer behaviors.
Though there have been "a number of situations where people have
been disciplined" for inappropriate computer use at work, Internet
addiction is "not a hot topic" among employment lawyers, said Mary
Roberts, a Seattle attorney and Washington Employment Lawyers
Association board member.
The UW's Ries said it is unlikely Internet addiction will be studied on a
wide scale because "it's not a disruptive enough problem."
But Weiss thinks people need more information.
Had she been better informed, she said, "I would have at least
questioned what I was doing."
Aydrea Walden can be reached at 206-464-2342 or
awalden@seattletimes.com.
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