must give your word to yourself every day that you will do this or that or not
do this or that. Then you must keep your word, no matter what happens around you
or what temptations or seductive excuses you encounter.” Many addiction
treatment programs fail because addicts are not empowered to rehabilitate their
ability to give and keep their word. Many addicts, experience has shown, are
very accomplished liars. Their promises and statements to others often can’t be
trusted. And their ability to keep promises to themselves is similarly impaired.
Without the ability to give and keep your word, especially to yourself, you’ve
got very little chance of curing any addiction. On the other hand, if you make
this goal part of your overall game plan, you may be able to emerge from your
addiction a stronger, healthier, and more trustworthy human being.
(VII) Failing to Do What May Be Necessary Be very clear about this one important
point: ALL ADDICTIONS CAN BE CURED AS LONG AS THEY AGREE TO DO WHATEVER MIGHT BE
NECESSARY. One reason most addictions appear to be “incurable” is because people
shy away from the types of actions that are often necessary. What types of
actions are these? Well, they can be numerous, diverse, and highly specific for
any individual. They might include any or all of the following (using Internet
Addiction as an example):
1. Setting an absolute schedule or time limit for how much time you spend
on the Internet.
2. Forcing yourself to stay away from the Internet for several days at a
time.
3. Placing self-imposed computer “blocks” on certain types of
recreational programs, which include the web browser.
4. Setting an absolute policy for yourself of never signing on to the net
at work (unless this is required for your study).
5. Establishing meaningful (but not harmful) consequences for yourself
for failing to keep your word.
6. Applying these self-imposed consequences until you do regain your
ability to keep your word consistently.
7. Forcing yourself to do other things instead of spending time on the
net.
8. Resolving to learn how to derive other more healthy sources of
pleasure in life to replace or even exceed the pleasure you got from being on
the Internet.
9. Asking for help whenever you feel you are not being successful.
10. Avoiding people or environments that might encourage you to return to
your addictive behaviour, this might be impossible in college but it still is a
good point.
These are not the only actions that can be taken, many of them will work for a
majority of individuals. The point is that in order to cure an addiction, you’ve
got to be willing to do things that may seem drastic or outrageous but not
harmful to yourself or others. So if you have a history of failing to make any
type of desired behaviour change, all this may mean is that you weren’t willing
to do what is necessary. All addictions (and other dysfunctional behaviours) can
ultimately be cured. It’s just a matter of figuring out what specific actions
will work (and will not cause you or others harm) and then executing those
actions despite any thoughts or feelings you might have to the contrary.
(VIII) Failing to Anticipate and Deal With Relapses No matter how much initial
success you have in eliminating an addiction, unintended relapses are just
around the corner. Something unexpected might happen in your life or you might
otherwise succumb to a moment of weakness. Good addiction treatment plans
anticipate that such relapses commonly occur and prepare individuals to deal
with them successfully. A relapse does not mean that you have failed in your
efforts to cure yourself of an addiction. If you stay away from cigarettes for 3
months and then smoke again for two days in a row, you can view this as a
“failure” if you want, or you can focus on the fact that of the last 92 days,
you successfully abstained for 97% of them. That’s pretty good. The trick is to
keep 2 days from becoming 5 days, or 5 days from becoming 10 days, etc. Here you
will need a game plan to keep an occasional relapse from triggering a return to
the addiction. Once you understand these elements, chances are you will not be
and addict for long. And for those who were close, I don’t think that you are
smart enough not to get sucked in.
CONCLUSION
Internet addiction is a serious addiction that should not be taken lightly, it
might not be life threatening like some drug addiction, but it can very harmful
to the person professional and personal life. The key to staying away from this
addiction is to understand its elements and have a strong will power to control
one’s self from all the temptations that the Internet might provide.
One Last Interesting Question
We all know that more and more people are gaining access to the Internet some
way or another, but not every body had the chance of looking at figure 3 !
Figure 3. Will the equation people = Internet Users be true in 2001? (Source:
ftp://nic.merit.edu/statistics/nsfnet)
REFERENCES
Elias, M. (7/7/1996) Net overuse called “true addiction”, USA Today, pp 1-A.
McAllester, M. (5/5/1996), Study says some may be addicted to the Net; Bulldog
Edition.,
Los Angeles Times, , pp A-18.
Network Wizards, [online]
Available URL: http://www.nw.com/zone/
Rodgers, J. (1994), Treatments that works, Vol. 27, Psychology Today, pp 34.
Young, Kimberly, Centre of on-line addiction (COLA), [online]
Available URL: http://www.pitt.edu/~ksy/
Merit Network Inc., [online]
Available URL: ftp://nic.merit.edu/statistics/nsfnet/