Internet addicts suffer withdrawal

HEART RATE, BLOOD PRESSURE UP AFTER USAGE Anxiety leads to users logging on again to get rid of unpleasant feelings.

People who use the internet a lot experienced significant physiological changes, such as increased heart rate and blood pressure when they finished, a study has found.

“We have known for some time that people who are over-dependent on digital devices report feelings of anxiety when they are stopped from using them, but now we can see that these psychological effects are accompanied by actual physiological changes,” said Professor Phil Reed from Swansea University in the UK, who led the study.

Published in the international peer-reviewed journal, PLOS ONE, it was the first controlled experimental demonstration of physiological changes as a result of internet exposure.

According to the study, when internet use was stopped for those with digital-behaviour problems, there was an average 3%-4% increase in heart rate and blood pressure – and in some cases double that figure.

Although this increase was not enough to be life-threatening, such changes could be associated with feelings of anxiety and with alterations to the hormonal system that can reduce immune responses.

“If you give people an experience that taps into lower-order human motivations, and they have a psychological need that can be soothed by the device (example anxiety, boredom, depression, loneliness), they’re susceptible to behavioural addictions,” said Adam Alter from NYU Stern School of Business, US, and author of Irresistible.

Alter said it was possible for anyone to develop addictive internet behaviour, depending on the circumstances.

“As soon as you feel you’re spending more time than you’d like, that it’s hard to curb your usage, that it’s infringing on other areas of your life and that you think about the activity when you aren’t engaged in it, you know you have a problem,” explained Alter.

The study also suggested that these physiological changes and accompanying increases in anxiety indicated a withdrawal state seen with many “sedative” drugs, such as alcohol, cannabis, and heroin.

This state may have been responsible for some people’s need to re-engage with their digital devices to reduce these unpleasant feelings. – ANA

Picture: AFP A Palestinian man reads the Koran, Islam’s holiest book, during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan at a mosque in Gaza City on Wednesday.