Problematic Internet Use or Internet Addiction Disorder are two ways in which we define behavioural addictions, i.e. not related to a substance but to a habit, i.e. the use of the Web

Surfing the Internet, in fact, is a daily practice for a large segment of the population: adolescents, the so-called ‘digital natives’, for whom the Web is a normal extension of the social space that begins, for example, at school.

Using the Internet becomes an integral part of the experience of growing up and confronting others, a real environment in which the adolescent outlines his or her identity.

This is also why it is important to be able to recognise the boundaries between physiological and problematic web use.

What is Internet addiction and what are the symptoms?

Those with a web addiction pour most of their energy and time into this occupation, manifesting stress and dysfunctional behaviour when they are unable to connect, with tangible consequences in their personal relationships and in their performance at school or work.

Internet addiction may also be associated with manifestations of social withdrawal, whereby the patient prefers virtual life to real life, isolates himself within himself and often also presents alterations in his sleep-wake rhythm.

The problem, from this point of view, is particularly relevant for adolescents.

Adolescence, in fact, is a delicate time in the formation of the individual in which social relationships are fundamental for the construction of the adult personality.

Internet addiction is a complex phenomenon that is still being studied and for which no agreed criteria for definition have yet been found.

There are in fact a number of variables whereby what in one person is treatable as addiction, in another is merely a mode of adherence to one’s social context of reference.

For this reason, each situation must be assessed as a separate case, based on a series of psychological, behavioural, social and clinical factors that the psychotherapeutic specialist will recognise.

Adolescents: Internet as a space for socialising

Today’s adolescents are digital natives and for them the use of the Internet represents a normal action, perfectly integrated into everyday life.

Moreover, teenagers are immersed in a transversally hyper-connected society, where virtual means of communication, such as chats, are used by parents to communicate with their children and with those who are responsible for them during working hours (such as grandparents or babysitters), and where traditional family balances are being redefined, with mothers often working full-time and fathers having a more equal presence in their children’s lives.

If, at one time, children found the dimension of socialising outside the control of adults outside the home, in squares and courtyards, today it is the Internet the ‘place’ they access to socialise independently and experiment with identity.

The risks that used to be taken outside the home are now taken inside one’s own room: such as cyberbullying, online sexual harassment, gambling and social challenges (challenges) that are often dangerous to the point of posing a risk to the life of those who carry them out.

The Internet, in this sense, becomes the scenario in which possible blocks in the adolescent’s evolutionary development manifest themselves.

Psychic discomfort does not manifest itself in asocial and transgressive behaviour outside the walls of the home, but with a depressive withdrawal and a pervasive feeling of shame that are reflected in the way the Web is used and that can lead to an increase in Internet addiction.

From Internet addiction to social withdrawal pathologies

As we have specified, there is indeed a correlation between Internet addiction and social withdrawal (the Japanese term Hikikomori is often used to define adolescents suffering from this disorder).

However, the cause-effect relationship is the reverse of what one is usually led to think: it is not Internet addiction that leads to social isolation but, rather, the tendency to shut oneself up at home and, even more so, in the protected dimension of one’s own room, that leads to misuse of the Web.

In the most severe cases of social withdrawal, in fact, the adolescent does not even use the Internet.

The complex relationship between Internet addiction and social withdrawal takes place in a society deeply focused on values such as popularity and beauty, transmitted through social networks.

The adolescent’s experiences and identity are shared with the rest of the world, which is represented by their followers: a mutual mirroring through which individual value is confirmed.

The adolescent who does not perceive himself as sufficiently beautiful and popular, on the other hand, cannot cope with social pressure and interpersonal relationships, which he rejects.

When is the psychologist’s help needed?

If the Internet on the one hand gives meaning to the existence of those who through the Web are confirmed in their narcissism, on the other hand it also serves as a shelter and refuge for those adolescents who are rejected on the outside and who, because of this, suffer a narcissistic wound.

It is at this point that psychological work takes over, which must offer a valid alternative to the protected space represented by one’s room and the Internet.

In the space of therapy, the adolescent must feel welcomed and must be able to mirror himself, in such a way as to authorise his own frailties, needs and desires, even when they are more difficult to admit and arouse more shame in the self-imposed conviction that they may be unacceptable to the other.

In this way, therapy encourages a social rebirth and allows the adolescent to overcome his or her blocks and resume the interrupted evolutionary path.

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Source:

Humanitas