Characteristics of Users of Online Self-Help Program for People with Internet Addiction: Symptoms, Motivation, Negative Consequences and Benefits of Its Restriction
Abstrakt
Although data from Internet addiction (IA) prevalence studies reported inconsistent occurrence rates of IA, there is no doubt that IA has become a serious public health problem around the world. In 2011 a self-help program for people with Internet addiction posted on the website of the Department of Addictology First Faculty of Medicine at Charles University in Prague.
Objectives: to map the most used online applications, symptoms of addictive behavior according to six basic dimensions, motivation to addictive behavior on the Internet, negative consequences of addictive behavior on the Internet and the benefits of its restriction. Method: CIAS, qualitative analysis of data obtained from a self-help program.
Participants: 273 people registered to the self-help program for people with addictive behavior on the Internet during the first 13 months of service. Results: The most popular online applications with addictive potential were online social communication applications.
Within salience, symptoms have been identified as categories of thought (thoughts on current online events, past and future online events and thoughts of when to be online); behavior (a lot of time online, with consequences of neglecting duties, lateness, insomnia, neglecting interpersonal relationships and hobbies); feelings (craving, desire to be online, pleasant states online, negative emotions due to the unsuccessful limit of the Internet use, emotions affected by online events). The most frequently mentioned negative consequence of addictive behavior on the Internet was employment and school.
From the restriction of addictive behavior on the Internet, respondents promised mostly better study and work benefits and more time for hobbies. Conclusion: Internet addiction is a behavioral addiction distorting more psychosocial (work and social) functioning than somatic functioning, which may be the reason why these clients are not often seen in psychiatric addiction services.