Social networks as a drug: how do centers work against Internet addiction

In the United States are gaining popularity centers to combat Internet addiction.
Photo: depositphotos

Many people are addicted to social networks, which does not allow them to live a full life, even to sleep the required amount of time.

Edition Broadly interviewed specialists about how to recover from this addiction, and learned that rehabilitation centers are actively developing in the United States, helping to combat addictions: gaming, technology or social networks.

80% of users check their phones during the first 15 minutes after they wake up. The average user checks his phone every 6 minutes during the day. This statistic is not considered supernatural. But still there are people for whom the phone turns into a real addiction.

For these, Dr. Hillary Kesh opened a rehabilitation center for gaming and Internet addiction.

In order to understand whether your passion for the phone and social networks has become an addiction, answer two simple questions: is your addiction causing problems in your life? If so, do you still continue to use the Internet and social networks as often? If you answered “yes” to both questions, you should start worrying.

Over the past few years, psychologists have been debating how to classify this disorder and whether it can be called an addiction. Dr. Cash believes that addiction to technology and the Internet should be included in the official list of addictions - as a mental disorder. She draws attention to the fact that such a deviation can affect the social and physical development of a person who is not interested in (“live”) communication with peers or any other activities not related to the Internet.

Photo: depositphotos

Rehabilitation centers from such dependence open across the country, positioning themselves as “a quiet, peaceful place where you can relax.” From 8 to 12 weeks, a digital diet will cost the patient $ 14 thousands.

According to Dr. Cash, the main clients of the rehabilitation center are men aged 18 to 28 years; women with Internet addiction are rare.

“They are all, as a rule, smart, nice people. Some of them had full lives before they went off the rails, while others lived only online. Treating people in the second group is much more difficult,” Cash said.

For those who cannot pay for treatment in a rehabilitation center, online help is available through counseling. This course is designed for 12 weeks, and you can listen to it at any convenient time from your phone or computer.

Despite the fact that using social networks to get rid of addiction to social networks seems strange, experts say that the goal of treatment is not to force a person to remove himself from social media, the goal is to teach how to properly use this tool of modern life, as well as how to properly distribute time.

Despite the fact that programs to combat technology and Internet addiction have been working for several years, they are still far from complete and ideal - since removing a person from the virtual world for a few weeks does not guarantee that he will not return there after the completion of the rehabilitation process. Therefore, specialists are constantly improving rehabilitation methods and developing new methods of their activities.

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