{"id":6255,"date":"2014-05-29T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T04:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=6255"},"modified":"2015-12-02T11:17:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T16:17:00","slug":"internet-addiction-changes-the-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2014\/05\/internet-addiction-changes-the-brain.html","title":{"rendered":"Internet Addiction Changes the Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedigitalphotos.net\/images\/agree-terms.php\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6263 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2014\/05\/boy-gaming-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"boy gaming\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" \/><\/a>Just a word of warning.<\/p>\n<p>If you are a gamer or tied to the video gaming industry, you won&#8217;t like this report given to the American Psychiatric Association&#8217;s 2014 Annual Meeting. \u00a0It has to do with a review of 13 published articles that look at Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) especially those addicted to Internet gaming) and brain abnormalities.<\/p>\n<p>Now, keep in mind that IAD is not a DSM V disorder, but one that is under study at present time. The interest in IAD is because we have a number of studies that show IAD associated with depression, suicide, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, ADHD and more.<\/p>\n<p>American youth are more Internet addicted (26.3%) \u00a0than drugs and alcohol. And teens who are addicted are more at risk for depression and suicide.<\/p>\n<p>Here are four findings from the review:<\/p>\n<p>1) \u00a0Internet addiction is associated with changes in blood flow in the brain. Increased blood flow is seen around the reward and pleasure centers of the brain, with decreases in blood flow around areas associated with hearing and visual processing.<\/p>\n<p>2) Internet addiction is associated with dopamine changes in the brain. Prolonged use can lead to a reduction in dopamine transporters, a state we see in other addictive disorders.<\/p>\n<p>3) Prolonged use can also give a sense of out-of-body feeling and euphoria.<\/p>\n<p>4) Prolonged use can lead to feeling indifferent to consequences of a person&#8217;s behavior such as decreased sensitivity to monetary loss.<\/p>\n<p>So while there are no definite conclusions, we continue to look at the impact of the Internet on our connectedness and how it might be changing the brain in good and not so good ways. There is enough information to suggest that Internet addiction is real for some people, but more study is needed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source:\u00a0American Psychiatric Association&#8217;s 2014 Annual Meeting. Abstract NR7-33. Presented May 4, 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just a word of warning. If you are a gamer or tied to the video gaming industry, you won&#8217;t like this report given to the American Psychiatric Association&#8217;s 2014 Annual Meeting. \u00a0It has to do with a review of 13 published articles that look at Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) especially those addicted to Internet gaming)&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[914],"tags":[2897,2904,2896,1363,2694,2903,52],"class_list":["post-6255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-relationships-2","tag-brain-and-internet","tag-brain-changes-and-the-internet","tag-excessive-gaming","tag-internet","tag-internet-addiction","tag-internet-addiction-disorder","tag-parenting-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Internet Addiction Changes the Brain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Health\/galleries\/Internet-Addiction-Changes-the-Brain.aspx\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Internet Addiction Changes the Brain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just a word of warning. If you are a gamer or tied to the video gaming industry, you won&#8217;t like this report given to the American Psychiatric Association&#8217;s 2014 Annual Meeting. \u00a0It has to do with a review of 13 published articles that look at Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) especially those addicted to Internet gaming)&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Health\/galleries\/Internet-Addiction-Changes-the-Brain.aspx\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-29T04:00:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-02T16:17:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2014\/05\/boy-gaming-300x198.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Internet Addiction Changes the Brain","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Health\/galleries\/Internet-Addiction-Changes-the-Brain.aspx","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Internet Addiction Changes the Brain","og_description":"Just a word of warning. 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Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6255"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7770,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6255\/revisions\/7770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}