Addiction is not just about a matter of drugs. Nowadays, experts have warned about the group of people who suffer these disorders due to an addiction without a substance. We are talking about the Internet, mobile phones, games of chance, etc.

These kind of addictions have increased during the last years over all those related with the new technologies.  According to the statistics, every ten years the percentage of people affected by this illness could cover five percent.

As the experts have pointed out the only disorder which is consider as a mental illness so far is the compulsive gambling.

However, the addiction without any substance that has increased the most is Internet. This affects to the 15% of the population. In the second place is the mobile phone (10%), in the third place is work (10%), in the fourth place is shopping (5%) and gambling (3%).

Internet´s consequences

‘Facebook’ or ‘Twitter’ have increased the addictions over all in people that are less than 25 years old.

Experts consider an Internet addiction to be when people expend more than three hours a day searching the net just for pleasure. They also identify work addiction when they dedicate more than 50 hours per week. You will also be a shopaholic whenever you feel the need of buying every day, even at a one dollar shop.

As the Spanish doctor Javier García says “Addicted people usually have friendly difficulties or they suffer from low self-esteem”. As a result, a lot of people use the net as a way of looking for those kind of relationships that they won´t get in real life.

Some of the negative consequences are that there are people that need to interrupt their job every 15 or 20 minutes just to have a look to the social networks. There are also others that don´t feel well with themselves when they don´t have new friends every day. Anthropological researches have demonstrated that “the human being can´t have more than 150 friends”.

In fact, experts claim that the Internet addiction leads to the development of others addictions, such as gambling, shopping, or sex. In addition, these can generate a progressively carelessness of their real life, family or friends.

The addiction´s origin

According to the Missouri-Columbian University (EEUU) latest researches called ‘Archives of General Psychiatry’, compulsive gamblers have similar profiles of those with addictive disorders related with alcohol, weeds, or nicotine. According to the research, these matches were similar to the dependency between drugs and alcohol.

On the other hand, a recent research lead by Dalhousie University (USA) experts that has been published at the ‘Alcoholism: Clinical y Experimental Research’ magazine, claims that the triumphant feeling gambling increases the need of the alcohol consumption more than when you are losing. This could explain why addiction problems are always related with alcohol ones. According to this research, you need to treat both pathologies at the same time to leave compulsive gambling.

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About the author

Lydia Cerrada
As a Journalist I have been given the opportunity to explore the world and what it has to offer. Traveling has become my passion; I get to learn by getting involved in all kind of experiences. There is no challenge that I will turn down. As long as you face life with a positive attitude there’ll be no limits, just be persistent ;) If you want to know more about me just follow me on Twitter @Skapy4

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