Ben Alexander, 19, spent nearly every waking minute playing World of Warcraft. As a result, he flunked out of the University of Iowa. Alexander needed help to break an addiction he calls as destructive as alcohol or drugs. He found it in a suburb of Seattle, where what claims to be the first residential treatment center for Internet addiction in the United States just opened its doors.
The center, called ReSTART, is somewhat ironically located near Redmond, headquarters of Microsoft and a world center of the computer industry. It opened in July and for $14,000 offers a 45-day program intended to help people wean them from pathological computer use, which can include obsessive use of video games, texting, Facebook, eBay, Twitter and any other time-killers brought courtesy of technology.
The five-acre center in Fall City can handle up to six patients at a time. Alexander is so far the only patient of the program, which uses a cold turkey approach. He spends his days in counseling and psychotherapy sessions, doing household chores, working on the grounds, going on outings, exercising and baking. Whether such programs work in the long run remains to be seen.
Internet addiction is not recognized as a separate disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, and treatment is not generally covered by insurance, but there are many such treatment centers in China, South Korea and Taiwan. Internet addiction is taken very seriously in Asia, and many psychiatric experts believe that Internet addiction is real and harmful.