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"Internet-Use Disorder has been accepted for inclusion in the official psychiatrist's diagnostic manual, the DSM-IV, as of next year. Of course, any self-respecting Internet addict knows that already. \nIn fact, if you haven't already Googled it, trawled the Wikipedia entry, tweeted about the fact that 'Internet Addiction Disorder' started life in 1995 as a satirical hoax, and started a Reddit forum to discuss the symptoms, we have our doubts about whether you can truly claim to be addicted. Heck, you're probably only using a single screen. \nSeriously, it's unlikely many of us fit the description of the disorder. A tendency to waste hours on Facebook just doesn't cut it. (If it did, anywhere up to 955 million people would have a whole new reason to start therapy.)\n\nSEE ALSO: Why Most People Say They're Addicted to the Internet\nHere's the skinny. IUD has been tentatively included in the revised edition of the DSM-IV (and is likely to make the controversial upgrade in progress, the DSM-V) thanks to a group of psychiatrists in Australia. The main focus of their research: children. \nSpecifically, children who play a lot of online video games \u2014 and have a tendency to get nervous, anguished or irritable when their laptops, tablets or other connected devices are taken away from them.\nEven in those cases, the Australian psychiatrists are loath to define a disorder whose boundaries are still shadowy. The main message of the IUD entry: more research is needed. \n\"With kids, gaming is an obvious issue,\" Professor Mike Kyrios, of Swinburne University of Technology, told the Sydney Morning Herald. \"But overall, technology use could be a potential problem.\" \n\nSEE ALSO: Parent's Dilemma: Are You Raising Tech-Addicted Kids?\nThat's about as far as Kyrios, one of the authors of the forthcoming DSM entry, is prepared to go. Fundamentally, it's still up to parents to decide whether their kids are displaying withdrawal symptoms when the Internet is yanked away from them, and whether the case is serious enough to warrant psychiatric help. \nAs for grownups who worry whether they're hooked on the Internet? As Kyrios would put it: more research is needed.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, contour99"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/10/02/internet-use-disorder-is-official-but-who-has-it/>