The DSM-5 drafting committee considered including Internet addiction in the upcoming revision, but eventually backed off, at least for now. Apparently they decided to put it in the category “requiring further study.” So it’ll be in DSM-6.
Meanwhile, people are being given the “diagnosis” anyway – and of course, the “treatment.”
AN ILLUSTRATIVE CASE
I’m grateful to Tallaght Trialogue for sending me a link to a recent article in the UK’s MailOnline. It was written by Rebecca Seales and Eleanor Harding. You can see it here.
The article is about a four-year-old girl who “…is having psychiatric treatment after becoming Britain’s youngest known iPad addict.”
“Doctors say she is so addicted to games on her parents’ iPad that she experiences withdrawal symptoms when it is taken away.”
The treating psychiatrist is Dr. Richard Graham, who runs the Capio Nightingale Clinic in London. The Capio, which describes itself as London’s leading private mental hospital, reportedly charges £16,000 ($24,320 US) a month for a digital detox program, which is designed to wean “patients” off their electronic devices.
In the Mail article, it is reported that Dr. Graham commended the 4-year-old girl’s parents for seeking help quickly, adding that “…by age 11, the problem might have become so severe that she would have required in-patient care.”
Apparently the problem is common, and a great many children throw temper tantrums if the devices are taken from them.
LET’S GET REAL
What’s involved here is parent-child conflict, which has probably been going on since we were hunting and gathering in the Rift Valley. The only “treatment” needed is perhaps a boot camp for parents to help them regain some of the sense they were born with and have apparently lost.
There will always be a certain amount of conflict in parenting, and as a general rule, if the child wins in the short term, he loses in the long term.
One of the “side effects” of modern child psychiatry is the widespread disempowerment of parents. The unspoken message is: You can’t deal with this; it’s much too abstruse and technical; send your children to us; we understand; we have pills; you can trust us – we’re doctors.
Internet addiction is not an illness. It’s a habit. It can become severe and can be significantly counter-productive. In the case of children, parents simply need to step up to the bat and curtail the activity, and take positive steps to involve the child in more wholesome and fulfilling activities. If they can’t manage this, they need to get help – not from psychiatrists, but from their parents, grandparents, neighbors, friends, etc…, and perhaps helping professionals who are not aligned with bio-psychiatric pharma. Help is there, but people won’t offer unless they’re asked.
Dr. Graham was correct about one thing, though. The longer you leave it, the worse it gets.
If you’re not already doing so, please speak out against the madness.