New Addiction Clinic

[pulisa]

I read today that the NHS is to fund The Centre For Internet Disorders which will open in London shortly. Its priority is to help child gaming addicts but in the long term it expects to help people with other internet-related problems/addictions.
I think it's a sad reflection of today's society. The internet can be of huge benefit to people but it can also bring huge misery to vulnerable anxious people as regards social media addiction etc
Maybe in time there will be a clinic (heavily over-subscribed) for Dr Google addicts? It's very much needed and would help the NHS in the long run by reducing patient demand for GP appointments.

What do people think about this new clinic?

[Catherine S]

I agree that it will take the strain off the GPs if there is a place for people to go where the staff are specialised in this kind of addiction, it seems like a good move. I also agree that it's very sad that it's needed.

Cath

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hopefully it will help those who have reached addiction level, especially children. And hopefully it will encourage education of parents so they understand when the signs show and what to do. And educate about sensible use technology as it's breeding a generation of less sociable people affecting their confidence as can be seen on here in some. And tackle this as a cause of poor physical health too.

Technology is good until we humans turn it into our usual vices.

Oh and working with the companies hooking people just as gambling companies have done.

Perhaps also tackling the "latest trainers" element of this where there is social pressure to keep up.

[pulisa]

The FOMO compulsion? My daughter's mental health is very much affected by her use of various sites on the internet. It is very sad and very frustrating that faceless keyboard warriors can cause her so much pain as she perceives herself as unable to "measure up" to what is "expected" of her as a twentysomething.

[KK77]

The FOMO compulsion? My daughter's mental health is very much affected by her use of various sites on the internet. It is very sad and very frustrating that faceless keyboard warriors can cause her so much pain as she perceives herself as unable to "measure up" to what is "expected" of her as a twentysomething.

Sites like NMP can be very useful (if used wisely), but I find most "social media" platforms extremely superficial and shallow. You generally only see the polished surface of people's lives and not the crappage and ugly junk beneath. Because let's face it, we all have problems in some shape or form.

[MyNameIsTerry]

No idea what a FOMO compulsion is

I don't go near sites like Facebook & Twitter. At my last workplace you had people connecting as friends who never came across each in real life in the office. It was just about status.

I've looked a few of my ex colleagues up since I left and predictably it's just a load of old nonsense posted on their time lines.

I don't really understand how people find the time to use them. They do start using them at work so that every break meant checking.

I'm so glad I grew up before all this stuff. Whilst computer games were about we still spent most of our time in the fresh air since we had one TV when I was young. I had my own later on but life as still about being outside. Today it often seems the other way around.

[pulisa]

FOMO is Fear Of Missing Out in young person speak! You have to keep up with the pack or else you are considered a "loser". It's very sad and puts enormous pressure on vulnerable people who have little confidence in their own ability to have a valid opinion on anything.

I know we all hark back to the good old days of our childhood but I'm really glad I didn't grow up immersed in social media expectations because I couldn't have coped with the pressure. I know I wasn't coping with life anyway because I developed anorexia at 16 but things could have been worse if I had been tormented by the demands of social media and all the crap that is around today..

[MyNameIsTerry]

Ah, now I get it! I'm not up on young person speak. I thought YOLO might have been a prequel to the Bond film of a similar name

I was pretty lucky with the keeping up issue. It was trainers when I was a teenager. I was also in a group of friends who weren't the popular kids and we just took each other for who we were. Other groups were the good looking kids, then there were those doing less well in classes which involved the lads who were the roughest. I always got on with anyone and didn't think about these groupings. I remember once one of the good looking ones telling me to join them and ditch my mates but I stayed put.

So for me there wasn't as much pressure. If I had been in with the good lookers I would have been the lesser looking average kid and I expect it would have been more of an issue since many of their parents earned more. I think the mixed nature of our school naturally reigned it in because the posher kids came from one primary whereas I came from one where I grew up with some of the rougher lads. The posher kids had less scope for elitist behaviour when we had lads who would have smashed their teeth in and had rough families.

Other than NMP the internet is a tool to me. I'm not into social networking. It's second nature to the younger generation though and I feel for them because they get a lot of pressure from it. The Internet is the home of nasty people and the consequences of getting a black eye for something no longer exists so there are less boundaries.

It's very sad we need doctors to treat people due to technology. I guess it's always happening in one way or another (think of changes in manufacturing costing jobs leading to depression or the pressures of the rush of modern life, for instance) but it was bad enough with the perfect body mag issues and the Internet just heaps much more on top.