Help for Internet Addiction

by Dr. Lorin Bradbury

Two weeks ago, I wrote an article on Internet addiction and one of readers of this column responded with the following:

Hello Dr. Bradbury, I wanted to point you and your readers to our group, internetaddictsanonymous.org. We hold recovery meetings by phone for people suffering from this addiction anywhere in the world. We are one of the only active group in North America and Europe.

I went to the website noted above, and it looks good. It is very possible that some of the readers of this column would benefit from visiting the website, reading the material, and/or even joining a recovery meeting.

You may have an Internet addiction if you find yourself “Checking Facebook excessively, looking for affirmation in the form of likes, and getting depressed by the exciting things other people are doing. Sitting down at the computer to do work or studying, only to find yourself doing internet searches on every random thought that pops into our brain. Wasting time on heated discussions on Reddit, discussion forums, or comment threads on things that aren’t important. Compulsively checking your smartphones hundreds of times a day.”

That quote is taken directly from the Internet Addictions Anonymous website, so if that definition of Internet addiction is applicable to you, I would encourage you to get help.

Lorin L. Bradbury, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Bethel. For appointments, he can be reached at 543-3266. If you have questions that you would like Dr. Bradbury to answer in the Delta Discovery, please send them to The Delta Discovery, P.O. Box 1028, Bethel, AK 99559, or e-mail them to [email protected].

Example: 9075434113