Internet Addiction- Am I Alone?

[SophiaGrace]

I forsook the internet for a week and now i'm back.

Why is it that I can never shake this beast?

Seriously.

I dont get it.

Some people can cut back on their internet usage just fine. But not me...

nope.

Am I the only one that cant seem to stay away from the internet? Am I crazy? Am I just...I feel like I've just relapsed on some sort of drug. *frowns*

 

[Splenda-Kills]

You're not alone. I got unlimited data plan on my phone just in case I have to go outside (which is rare) and be away from the internet for more than an hour.

 

[Punisher]

I can only stay offline when my internet gets switched off because I haven't paid the bill

 

[SophiaGrace]

You're not alone. I got unlimited data plan on my phone just in case I have to go outside (which is rare) and be away from the internet for more than an hour.

lol how long have you had this plan?

 

[Splenda-Kills]

You're not alone. I got unlimited data plan on my phone just in case I have to go outside (which is rare) and be away from the internet for more than an hour.

lol how long have you had this plan?

It's been about half a year, after having run up my phone bill the last time I went on vacation and made a "resolution" to neither bring my computer nor use the internet...

...Let's just say it failed and I had a jaw-dropping look at my phone bill two weeks after the vacation.

 

[SophiaGrace]

You're not alone. I got unlimited data plan on my phone just in case I have to go outside (which is rare) and be away from the internet for more than an hour.

lol how long have you had this plan?

It's been about half a year, after having run up my phone bill the last time I went on vacation and made a "resolution" to neither bring my computer nor use the internet...

...Let's just say it failed and I had a jaw-dropping look at my phone bill two weeks after the vacation.

Yikes! o_o

Good idea then I guss

 

[h i]

i like the glow of the screen, the multi tasking, the ability to ignore problems online. yeah. i like computers.

 

[duality]

I get withdrawal symptoms when I don't use the Internet for a long time. I get irritated if I don't check my email/Facebook/other stuff for a couple of days.

 

[Lawrens]

Can you imagine a world without internet?

*shudders*

 

[Coverage]

I spend much more time online then I should, but I wouldn't consider myself an addict though. (could just be denial though )

You certainly not alone though. Internet addiction is a becoming a fast growing problem and effects many people.

 

[Ravager1663]

The internet is consuming us, drawing us in, getting us hooked. All while it grows and slowly, bit by bit, it becomes its own entity plotting to control of the world, maybe even the universe! We're so screwed.

 

[SophiaGrace]

Can you imagine a world without internet?

*shudders*

LOL! Love the picture

 

[Lonesome Crow]

I've struggle with addictions of one type or another for years...
Yes I even got hooked on the net for years..

I have OCPD...

I've been in recovery for almost 20 years. There's many concept
and perception of addiction. I work the 12 steps program.
And I've educated myself about addictions from many literature.

For the first 5 years of my recovery...internet addiction wasn't a
problem...well becuase there wasn't an internet back when. So
my recovery was based around getting off chemicles..drugs and alcohol.

I must admit ..I substitude one addiction for another....
I bascailly had a lot of sex all the time for the first couple of years.
Luckiely I was blessed with a GF so i didn't have to do the onenight stands
and that whole guilt trip stuff of sleeping around or being a womanizer.
Even then my GF knew I was substituting..she was too..

It was a healthier life style that we both had then before.
I was in love with her, in lust with her...We both bascailly went
to work, school, raised our daughters and had sex all the time.
At that piont in time of my life it was like heaven. We both weren't
drinking or using, were very much in love and was trying to live a balance life. Our home was a santuary and fill with the laughters of children.

As our live continued...we became more finacilly stable and had more
material success...we drifted apart. Gradaully my addiction ruled it's
ugly head in another form...I bacame a workalholic. If was very hard for
me to admmit tha becuase in my mind ..I thought I was doing what a
man suppost to do....take care of his family and give them a nice
home and comfortiable home to live in. It caused me the relationship.
My Gf at the time even told me she wish that we didn't have all the damn
cars or money...she rather have me at home playing with children
and make love to her like I used too.

Anyway..what I'm saying is addiction come in many forms.
The actaully drinking and using are just symtoms of our deeper problems.
Recovery had always told me that...

I also became a vedio game addict at one piont...

I also struggle with my music...if you all only knew the amount of times
I played those scales or solo on the music I recorded....ya die laughing.lmao
I lost count after a hundred on some of solos...

Later on ...after being clean and sober for 7 years...I found myself
with a gambling addiction. It started out as just having fun and a weekend
get away. I 've had nevered gamble until then in my entire life..
I was a bit bewilder or thought it could never happened to me...but it did.

What triggered my gambiling addiction was bascailly becuase I check the
****** out mentally and emotionally. I knew I didn't what to drink or use drugs..never the less I was still on a run and using gambling as an escape.
It was right after my children died. I didn't know how to cope with it...
It hurt so much to even think about it. I ran away from the pains and grieving for my children. I did that for two years until it stopped working.
I found myself wanting to break down in a room full of thousands of people. After I stopped gambling...I totally broke down and cried my heart out and started the grieving process of my children.

I was struggling with my ex-gf addiction and gambling problems.
After all she was the person carrying our children inside of her.
Plus her father died a couple of week before our children did.
She really, really checked the **** out....
Our realtionship turn into a total nightmair and totally toxic.
Sex..sex..sex...gambling all the time for my ex-gf to hope or escape.
It was like at any moment she wasn't doing that she was having
dreams about her father or the babies. She went totally bonkers
or was almost like I was...getting ready to break down. It over whelm
her..So she went on her run...

That was about the sametime I started using and surfing the net.
It started off slowly as me just serching for informations ...actually
looking for help for the problem my ex-gf and I was having.
It got totally retarded after a while..becuase I was surfing the damn
net instead of doing my work. It was really, really fucken hard...
becuase I need to use the PC to do my work...

Kind of like a person that has eating addiction...that has to be very
difficult...becuase you need to eat to live.
tHANK god ..I don't have an eating addiction...that would very, very difficult to over come.

Obvioulsly everyone knows about moderations....
When it comes to addicts...preaching to me about moderations dosn't work.lol

I've been able to not use the net as much as i used to.
I'm down to 10-15 mins per/day....maybe an hour max.
Somedays I don't even use my PC...
I'm grateful... that I'm not struggling with the net at the moment.

For me, I think it also has something to do with the flash rate of the screen.
I know slot machine use to mesmorized me...becuase of the music or sounds would
go in loops....kind of like why I was addicted to vedio games....it was the repetition
of the music ..and the rush of beating a level/boss or getting a reward.

I also notice after winning a game or a jackpot...everything seems borning...
That's the progression...I wanted to play a more challenging game or win a bigger jackpot.

Anyway...for me, it's admmiting I have a problem and actaully admitting I enjoy my addictions...
Once I do that for some reason it looses it's grips on me...of all the guilt and shame also.
Bascailly I'll out grow it , or it feels borning to me to be on the net all the time, gambling or getting high.

well...I finally got a cell phone not too long ago after a couple of years of not having one...
Errr....wtf ..this fucken thing be ringing off the fucken hook. I text people just for the sake
of texting...lmao
Phone calls, texting, net browsing.....god fucken me...

 

[Twitchy]

The internet is consuming us, drawing us in, getting us hooked. All while it grows and slowly, bit by bit, it becomes its own entity plotting to control of the world, maybe even the universe! We're so screwed.

You're thinking of Skynet.

 

[evanescencefan91]

i made a thread a good while back about my feelings about it

http://www.alonelylife.com/showthread.php?tid=2220


ahh internet

you know maybe something about has affect our or at least my ability to really try and think things through to solve problems

i mean who really needs to think anymore than to type a phrase in Google then read the answer

ooh google oh internet i don't care if i turn into a complete mindless zombie as long as i has you

<3

 

[Bluey]

I guss I spend to much time on the old inter-webs.
I don't think its a bad thing though.
I mean if it wasn't for the net I just be listening to music or flicking thou a 100 TV channels getting frustrated cos there's never anything on.
At lest on the net you may learn something or get someone to talk to
There is a lot of entertainment on here.

 

[wheels]

Can you imagine a world without internet?

*shudders*

LOL!

 

[kimberleykat]

I can never survive without internet. Although it keeps bringing me anxiety/depression.
The only place I can go to is ALL forum or AT/DT where there are amount of understanding buddies.
I have met many good ppl here how can I live on without talking to them?
I knew Ovid from this site how can I cut off myself from internet from then on?
oh lame,
I live in the froth of internet bubbling with loneliness and sufferings.
And I am not gonna leave since the real world sucks.
Life sucks then I die.

 

[JamaisVu]

I struggle with this off and on. The internet is my main form of entertainment, and I am in front of a computer almost every waking hour. For well over a decade it's been my primary form of socialization.

Naturally I wind up participating on interactive websites, and this seems to be the main reason why it's addictive. If I've written something that thousands of people will see, I anxiously wait to see the responses. Unfortunately I go a bit overboard composing posts sometimes. The other night I must have spent at least 5 hours writing a longwinded response that was ultimately unneeded, because I thought I might have my previous (short) response questioned. I looked at the clock and thought "Where did the time go?" and this happens more frequently than I'd like to admit. To an extent it's necessary, because if I say the slightest thing wrong on some of the more uptight forums someone will call me on it and anything even slightly controversial or unpopular easily leads to endless arguing with certain types. Lately I just avoid anything too serious to preserve my sanity and avoid wasting too much time.

Often I'll stay silent for awhile, but inevitably some topic will draw me in or I'll just feel particularly talkative one night. In the past I've successfully just disappeared completely from many forums when I get tired of it and feel it's time to move on so I'm not a hopeless case but it's difficult.

If I travel, which I'll be doing soon, I end up needing to withdraw from forums for awhile beforehand. Still, along the way I check my favorite internet sites as often as possible, even getting a bit bitchy if I can't get the wifi to work in the hotel. My cell phone is internet-capable but it is exceedingly slow sometimes if I'm in a rural area. It's like if you know mail has arrived, but you can't check it for days, and you really want to read all the letters. Curiosity kills me and I wonder what I'm missing.

My impression is that many other people must be the same way. At the very least on some of the forums I visit some people have many thousands of posts in a relatively short time, others are there in the "online" list so often I can deduce their sleeping and work schedules, and some will have their account "retired" by mods or request a ban when they feel it's time for an enforced withdrawal. It intrigues me when people who are serious regulars just leave and never come back. It must feel a bit like abandoning a family.

And I realize the irony in composing a long post about internet addiction to post on the internet

 

[Nightwatcher]

The internet is dangerously addictive, at least for me it is. It slowly takes over you life untill its all you got, sitting online for hours. I remember the first time i actully recongnized that i might have a problem.It was when my computer broke down, i was really restless.It was like my life was shut down for a while. I thought well there must be other activities i could initiate, but a short while later i was back being restless. Its also really depressing when you look back at all the time you wasted on sitting online insted of spending time with improving your RL. The danger of it is that you really dont see it as an addiction in the first place untill your wasted several years online.