"Internet addiction" is classified as a mental illness in our country. Finally, we need to see whether a person's internet use for non-work or study purposes has become the main content of their life.
A study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences concluded that, like heroin or alcohol, excessive indulgence in internet addiction harms the brains of teenagers. This finding immediately caused a sensation worldwide. A British psychologist claimed that the research results had "groundbreaking" significance, but there were also people who questioned whether internet addiction should be considered a disease.
There is controversy over whether internet addiction belongs to mental illness. On the other hand, there are also many different views. The Guardian reported that another psychology professor at King's College London, Colin Drummond, believed that although people who often use the internet indeed have differences in brain structure compared to those who do not use it frequently, concluding that using the internet can "rewrite" the human brain is somewhat too speculative.
To check for internet addiction, a brain CT scan can be done.
Tragic Views
Dr. Tao Ran said that internet addiction can mainly be judged from three aspects. First, we need to see if an individual's social function has been lost. For example, the social function of students is studying. If they skip school due to being addicted to online games, then they have lost their social function.
High-resolution brain images of internet-addicted patients provide scientists with clues about the location and mechanism of brain damage. "Excessive internet use seems to deplete the myelin on nerve fibers," said Lei Hao.
Director Tao Ran stated that performing brain scans for psychiatric patients has become a research trend in the international psychiatry field.
Written by reporter Fan Wei
Research involving brain MRI scans of teenagers with internet addiction found that the neural fibers in their brain white matter are less healthy than normal people. Brain white matter is a component of the brain and spinal cord, serving as a bridge for communication between the brain and other parts of the body.
Gunter Schumann, a professor of biopsychology at King's College London, stated that similar findings have been made in people addicted to video games.
The American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" believes that internet addiction cannot be regarded as a mental illness.
Secondly, doctors judge whether the patient has psychological addiction. Some people think only about going online all day except for eating and sleeping. If they cannot go online, they feel uncomfortable. In such cases, it can be said that they have a "mental addiction."
So, does internet addiction count as a mental illness in our country? In the morning, Dr. Tao Ran, director of the Internet Addiction Treatment Center at Beijing Military Region General Hospital, said that China's first "Internet Addiction Diagnostic Criteria" was just approved in November 2011 by the Health Department of the General Logistics Department. The standard clearly categorizes internet addiction as a mental illness. Therefore, our country has become the first to release diagnostic criteria for internet addiction.
In addition, apart from the above three standards, Director Tao Ran said that PET-CT scans can be performed on the patient's brain. This is because the metabolism of glucose and oxygen in the prefrontal lobe of internet addicts has decreased. Compared to normal people, this function in internet addiction patients is more than 8% lower.
His research team also discovered that the damaged condition of white matter tissue is similar to alcoholism, heroin dependence, or cocaine addiction. Related symptoms include weakened cognitive control abilities affecting decision-making.
Professor Lei Hao of the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently stated that although the extent of harm still needs specific quantification, these findings already indicate a connection between excessive internet use and brain damage.
This discovery soon caused a sensation internationally. The Independent quoted Henrietta Jones, a psychiatrist at Imperial College London, as saying: "Such studies are groundbreaking; they clarify the neuroimaging links between internet addiction and other addictions like alcoholism and drug addiction. We finally know what has until now been doubted by clinicians, that these different types of addiction can all cause white matter damage in the brain."
Compiled and translated by reporter Yang Zheng
That is to say, a person who has been online for a long time and has become addicted, due to excessive internet use, only has a very small area of the brain that remains in an excited state. And since the function of the human brain is based on 'use it or lose it,' long-term lack of use of various regions of the brain may lead to a decline in brain function.