Addictions are real, but they can be overcome. Sometimes they require professional help. But they can be beaten, usually with great effort and dedication. However, today’s culture doesn’t seem to value these traits very much, and has concluded that an addict is helpless. It has also changes the definition of addiction to mean simply anything one enjoys. Thus people are addicted to chocolates, television, sex, magazines, whatever you can imagine. These addictions are completely over-diagnosed.
Case in point: A study by Stanford University School of Medicine claims the United States is full of internet addicts:
The United States could be rife with Internet addicts as clinically ill as alcoholics, an unprecedented study released suggested.
Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in Silicon Valley said their telephone survey indicated more than one of every eight US residents showed at least one sign of “problematic Internet use.”
Diagnosing someone via telephone strikes me as problematic, although I don’t doubt that many Americans do indeed spent lots of time, probably too much, on the internet. But addiction? I think not. Still, look for some form of medication to treat this “disease” to appear on the market soon.
