10-05-2003, 01:16 PM
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#1
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So Fucking Banned
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Somewhere between my monitor and my chair
Posts: 3,214
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TEXT Addicts
Mwahaha...
Quote:
More people are becoming addicted to text-messaging as a way of escaping problems with face-to-face relationships, a doctor at the Priory has claimed.
The Priory Hospital in Roehampton, south west London, famous for treating celebrities with alcohol and drug problems, has widened its range of treatment programmes to deal with increasingly complicated addictions.
Dr Mark Collins, head of the Priory's addictions unit, said text addicts were just one example of how addiction patterns had changed significantly in recent years.
The increased role of mobile phones and Internet technology in our ever more stressful lives has bred a range of new behavioural addictions, he believes.
"The main thing is about avoiding reality and living in an artificial reality," he said.
"Texting, for people who have other problems with relationships or whatever, provides a way of having a safe, artificial relationship where you feel in control."
Like drinking alcohol, texting in small quantities does not cause problems but "repetitive, compulsive behaviour" can destroy self-esteem and relationships.
Dr Collins said he had seen patients who damaged their thumb joints by spending so much time texting - up to eight hours a day in some cases.
"It became the focal point of their lives - everything else was secondary.
"The texting was their existence, their relationships were conducted through texting, it was not so much the hours. There was no difference between that and somebody being blind drunk for hours on end or taking drugs for hours on end. It was just obvious that this was a behavioural addiction with some underlying problem, just a 21st century expression thereof."
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd 2003, All Rights Reserved.
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