By Lisa Antao
Addiction to internet and online games or ‘internet misuse’ soon to be classified as a mental disorder.
The condition of pathological internet misuse (read spending hours surfing or playing games) has prompted international mental health experts to include this addiction for further study. Teenage internet and gaming addiction has parents rushing in droves to psychiatrists and psychologists for quick fixes.
Clinical psychologist and trauma therapist Seema Hingorrany notes an increase T in the number of patients with such cases, "I had a patient, a 12-year-old girl unable to go to school due to an addiction to social networking sites. This girl browses the internet late nights for four to five hours at a stretch and is, therefore, unable to go to school or even study. There’s a 13-year-old boy who developed an addiction to a game based on the supernatural and has developed a fear of ghosts."