2023-11-29 10:00:00
The Internet is part of our daily lives, and has everything to make us “addicted”. The French spend on average 32 hours per week on a screen, according to a barometer published in 2023 (source 1). Many of them even show signs of dependence: a third feel a feeling of withdrawal as soon as they wake up. After three days without the internet, 8 out of 10 French people experience this feeling. When surfing, you don’t see time passing. The mind is absorbed, all the more so when you are alone behind the screen.
For many, it is a form of escape. This allows them to relax, to calm down from their worries. It is sometimes also a way to meet people on social networks and a form of extramarital affair. Dr Dan Véléa, psychiatrist.
Internet addicts are bored
Internet addicts come in all kinds of profiles. But for Dr Véléa, one thing unites them: inability to deal with boredom.
They all need to overstimulate themselves, to feel excited on a psychological level. For example, half of my patients live as a couple and things are going well. What they are questioning is routine.
Among those at risk, there are many hyperstressed executiveswho live in constant search for performance and for whom the Internet is a work tool.
Warning signs among internet addicts
Connecting to the Internet for several hours a day has become commonplace. This is not, however, a sign of an addiction.
Among addicts, the time factor is important, but also the intensity of the connection, the fact that they can no longer do anything else. Dr. Véléa.
A few signs indicate that you are on the wrong track. For example: when you get out of bed, you feel the need to turn on the computer. As soon as you are on the internet, you cut yourself off from the rest of the world to the point that your loved ones have already reported this abnormal behavior to you.
Never abrupt withdrawal
It’s not about eliminating the internet, smartphones and computers from our lives, but about bringing them back to their rightful place.
As with any hard drug, there is never a sudden withdrawal. You always have to put something in place to do not leave a gap. Dr. Véléa.
Undergo cognitive and behavioral therapy
“We teach the patient to control their stress and their impulses, to manage the existential void that, for example, gaming filled.”
The therapist takes over the patient’s schedule, minute by minute, professional and private, and tries to reduce the time spent on the Internet to the “livable minimum”.
It is an effective method, provided that the person agrees to question themselves. Dr. Véléa.
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